How to Follow Up After A Job Interview
How (and when) to follow up after your job interview
Ok, you’ve interviewed with the company and you’re patiently waiting to hear back on the status on if you’ll be invited back for another round of interviewing…or if you got the job. But you haven’t heard back yet. Should you contact them?…have they made a decision yet?
Not to worry, I’m going to tell you how and when to follow up with the hiring team! I’m also going to tell you what to say when talking to the company!
As a corporate recruiter, I see this type of thing a lot. A candidate meets with the hiring team, and for some reason we can’t give an answer quickly enough. I get it…you’re excited…anxious….nervous about the status of your interview.
There are lots of reasons why a candidate is left in the lurch and I’d like to cover some of them. And give you an idea of how to handle those situations.
There are a few different kinds of interviews that may necessitate you following up.
Working with an External Headhunter
If you worked with an external headhunter – you know, an agency that was hired by the company to find a candidate for a specific search – that would be your primary point of contact.
The external headhunter (we’ll just use headhunter for short) typically works closely with either the corporate recruiter at the company or the hiring manager directly.
What normally happens is that they screen you, and then submit your profile to me. I then review their notes plus your resume and make a decision to either interview you myself or reject your application. I’ll provide this feedback directly to the headhunter, and it’s usually pretty quickly after a submission.
In these cases, the headhunter should be the one to provide any interview feedback for you. If they interviewed you for a role and you aren’t sure what’s going on with it, follow up with them. They should be candid about the status of your submission.
Keep in mind that the headhunter isn’t in control of if you’re moving forward in the process – they simply act as an agent on your behalf. There’s not generally a lot of “negotiation” with the company. If the hiring manager doesn’t want to move forward, the buck stops there.
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Working with A Corporate Recruiter
Now if you worked with a corporate recruiter and had a phone screen directly with them, it’s a bit different.
When I interview a candidate and like them, I’ll normally send your resume to the hiring manager and ask for feedback. A good recruiter is pretty calibrated with the requirements for the role and usually the success rate of getting a 2nd round interview is pretty high (with my candidates at least).
But I’m waiting on the hiring manager to get back to me. Not all HMs are created equal. Some of them are very busy and hard to lock down. Other times, the resume falls through the cracks. Or sometimes the hiring manager is just indecisive and not sure if you’re a fit.
In those cases, I push the hiring manager to screen if I felt you were a fit. If anything, it gives me more information to calibrate the role.
So while I usually do try to get back to candidates in a reasonable amount of time, there have been occasions where I simply don’t get feedback from my managers for a week or even longer.
If you are getting rejected, maybe you’re doing something wrong. Here’s the most common mistakes I see people making in interviews.
Sometimes we need a nudge
In those cases, feel free to nudge me. Send a quick, short note stating
“Hi! I am following up on the status of my interview. I’d like to reiterate my interest in the role and feel I could add value to your team”.
It may remind me to nudge my hiring manager in return to get that feedback.
Now if a hiring manager simply won’t make a decision, I’ll oftentimes make it for him. In that case, I’ll send a rejection so you can at least move on with your job search. As I see it, if the hiring manager is that indecisive on an application, then it’s clearly not the right fit. Or they don’t know what they want. Either way, it’s not fair for the candidate to keep waiting.
Wait 5 business days to follow up
I’d recommend waiting at least 5 business days before beginning to follow up with the recruiter on their screen. We simply need time to process the submission (put together our notes), and send it over the hiring manager. And I generally give them 48 hours to respond.
I’ll try to keep you in the loop as best I can. If it goes onto the 2nd week, I’d suggest following up one additional time 3-4 business days after the first inquiry.
After An Hiring Manager phone interview
If you’ve had an onsite interview and the dust has settled, we generally let candidates know of a hiring status within a week. I’ve seen it go longer depending on other candidates that may be in the process.
It would be acceptable to start your follow up after a week, but only communicate with the recruiter you have been working closest with. I wouldn’t recommend following up with the hiring manager directly – unless they specifically said it was okay.
You see, normally coordinating with candidates isn’t something that’s usually part of their job description – they are busy with other things. And want the recruiter to handle all communication with candidates.
After the in person interview
If you’ve had an onsite interview and the dust has settled, we generally let candidates know of a hiring status within a week. I’ve seen it go longer depending on other candidates that may be in the process.
Delays can be caused by interviewing other candidates who were also in the process at the same time, trying to get the interview team into alignment or even that they want to see more candidates before making a final decision.
Trust me, as a recruiter, nothing is more frustrating than going through an entire hiring process only to hear “we’d like to see 2 more candidates first before we decide”. Hiring teams aren’t always considering candidate experience when they do this – I feel your pain.
My best suggestion if it’s taking longer than a week (or two) is to ask the recruiter to be candid with you. Say something like “I am just inquiring about if any decisions have been made? If the hiring team hasn’t been able to come to a consensus on my application, can you provide me any feedback? While I am very interested in this role, I’d like to know if I should continue pursuing other opportunities”
That may help them give you an indicator of where you stand. If the recruiter comes back with “I understand, and encourage you to continue looking at opportunities’ ‘ is an indicator you’re not likely to end up with an offer. Whereas if they say “the team is very interested but needs a bit more time” is a more positive sign things are trending well.
Either way, be patient, always keep your options open until you have an offer in your hands and continue expressing interest in the role.
Some things not to do.
As you work through a longer than anticipated hiring process, here’s some suggestions on what NOT to do.
- Don’t pester the recruiter or the hiring team – it’s okay to nudge occasionally, but sending daily or hourly emails isn’t going to win over the team.
- Don’t go around the recruiter’s back. I’ve never seen it work out that a candidate circumvented the recruiter, went directly to the hiring manager and ended up getting the job. In almost every case, the hiring manager immediately calls me and says “why is this person calling me??”
- Don’t lose your cool – even with long processes it’s easy to lose patience and get flustered. If you do, you’re guaranteed not to get the job. Be gracious, even in rejection – you never know where it will lead.
So that’s how to follow up after an interview. Hey, if you’re getting interviews, you’re doing something right. So you should feel good about it. Keep doing what you’re doing and things will eventually work out.
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