Did you know that what you do after your interview can be just as crucial to whether or not you get job offers?
That’s often the case.
You see, employers interview a lot of people, so the way you follow up with them, thank them, and communicate in general can make a big difference in their final decision.
You can also do a few other specific things after each interview to boost your chances of landing a job faster.
So in this article, I’m going to walk you through 6 important things to do after your job interview is over.
Let’s get started…
BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE BUILDING:
1. Make sure you got business cards from each person you met.
This is going to make following up and thanking them easier (which we’ll discuss soon).
This is a small, simple step but makes everything else so much easier. You’ll remember names and job titles and you’ll know how to get back in touch after your interview.
2. Ask when you can expect to hear feedback
This is how I like to end each interview; casually ask the interviewer when you can expect to hear about the next steps from them.
This will remove the anxiety of waiting by the phone and being unsure if you should follow up, if it’s too soon, etc.
Then I’d recommend setting yourself a calendar reminder to follow up for feedback after the date they told you has passed. Leave one extra business day as a buffer.
For example, if they told you that they’d have feedback for you on Thursday, mark your calendar to follow up on Friday if I haven’t heard anything from them.
WITHIN 24 HOURS OF YOUR INTERVIEW:
3. Send “thank you” emails to each person you met
Send emails thanking each person you met with after your interview. I like doing this the evening after your interview, or lunchtime the following day at the latest.
Send one individual email to each person. You want this to feel personalized and “tailored” to them.
Mention at least one thing you discussed that you enjoyed hearing about or enjoyed talking about with them, and thank the time they spent meeting with you.
Conclude by saying you’re eager to hear about the next steps, and sign off with your name.
I’ve written 3 word-for-word thank you email templates you can copy and send here.
4. Review your performance
Now that you’ve had some time to decompress, but the interview is still relatively fresh in your mind, I’d recommend sitting down with a pen and paper and thinking about how you performed, and what you wish you had said differently.
That way, you can improve your interview skills and keep performing better as your job search goes on.
Were there any answers you wish you had said differently?
Were there unexpected/tough questions you weren’t ready for? What were they, and how would you answer next time?
Did you ask them great questions at the end of the interview? If not, take the time now to prepare some good ones so it doesn’t happen again.
While it’s great if this interview turns into a job offer and you don’t need to worry about this – there are a lot of reasons a job offer can fall through or an interview can lead to rejection, so you should keep preparing and improving your skills.
THE FIRST WEEK AFTER YOUR INTERVIEW:
5. Follow-up for feedback if they’ve gone silent
If you followed the steps above, you’ll know when to expect feedback from them. After that date has passed, you should follow up to remind them you’re awaiting their decision, and that you’re eager to hear about the next steps in the process. Reaffirm your interest in the role and tell them any updates they can share would be great.
If you don’t know when to expect feedback or didn’t ask, that’s fine. I’d recommend waiting one full week and then following up to ask if they have any updates they can share.
I’ve written detailed interview follow-up templates here that you can copy and paste to ask about feedback and next steps.
6. Most Important: Keep applying for jobs
This is one of the biggest mistakes I see job seekers making: They go on an interview, go home excited, and decide to wait around for a week and just hope it turns into a job offer.
However, when they get rejected, they’re back at square one without any interviews lined up. This is devastating and demoralizing, and is completely avoidable if you just keep applying for jobs until you’ve signed a job offer!
It’s always better to have multiple opportunities and be in the position of choosing which one you like most, rather than waiting for one opportunity, finding out it fell through for whatever reason and then having absolutely nothing.
So whether the recruiter promises you’re getting an offer, or the hiring manager says they really like you a lot and expect they’ll be able to put together an offer next week, or anything else, keep applying until you have that written job offer in-hand and have decided to accept it.
If you follow the steps above, you’ll maximize the number of job offers you receive and finish your job search faster.
Originally published at www.LinkedIn.com