Making a follow up after an interview could be an important move in getting the job. While it is not necessary to follow up on an interview it will show the employer of your interest and enthusiasm in getting the job, not to mention it reflects your character as being polite and persistent. Here are a few ideas on how to properly follow up after an interview:

Send a thank-you note. Preferably on the same day you had the interview. You can send a simple card or better yet an email. Email arrives faster and is also convenient to make.

Ask the timeline for follow up. Right after the interview, you can ask the interviewer when you can make a follow up. But if you were not able to do that, don’t worry, you can always make a call and politely ask the timeline when you can expect them to make the decision.

Don’t appear desperate. There is a fine line between too enthusiastic and being desperate. It is not desperate to follow up on an interview once within the timeline period and once after the timeline period. But calling every week or everyday may make you look desperate and will send a wrong message to the potential employer that you may have no other option left or that no other employer wants you.

Be optimistic and stay positive. If you don’t hear anything from them immediately, don’t assume that it’s over. Decision making in a company goes into a process and it may take time. It could also be that the person responsible for making the decision is not yet available. So relax and just be patient.

Follow up when you don’t hear anything after the given timeline. Hiring usually lasts longer than anticipated so it is always safe to ask than to assume. Find out if they had made their decision and if not; don’t hesitate to ask for the updated timeline and do the follow up on the given timeline.

Be open for other options. No matter how good the interview went don’t stop applying to other companies. Keep setting up for other interviews to give you more choices. If your first choice is still not giving you results even after the timeline and you feel that you are about to get an offer to other applications you had, let them know and tell them that you are very interested in the job they are offering and that they are your first choice. If they are interested in you, then that might speed up the process for the result.

Be ready to move on. Yes, making a follow up on an interview requires you to be ready on moving on. The reason for following up is to know if you got the job or not. So if ever you did not get the interview, you’ll be ready to move on to your next choice.

Tags: follow up, followup letters, Interview, job seeking

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 17th, 2010 at 1:29 am and is filed under Applying for a Job, Job Search Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.