How to follow up after Job interview Quick Guide

A Simple Guide to Effective Job Interview Follow Up

It is a great sigh of relief once the most significant challenge, i.e., your interview, is over. At this point, all you want to do is sit back, relax and wait for the response. Is it their turn to respond? Not necessarily.
The good news is that it’s true that the most challenging part of job interview is over. However, there’s still work weighing on your back to ensure you stay on top of your interviewers’ intentions.
This guide will show interview follow-up email templates to win over recruiters and hiring managers and benefit your application.

Why Interview Follow-Up Emails are Important

Like an unwritten societal rule, following up after an interview is not mandatory. Most interviewers would not even explicitly tell you to do it; it’s often expected all the same.

For instance, following up an interview with a thank-you note is considered as common courtesy. If you omit to follow up your consultation with this kind of note or a similar one, a recruiter might think you’re cocky or ungrateful.
Another reason is that recruiters are busy most of the time. At any one given moment, a recruiter could be coordinating with dozens of candidates to fill the open requisitions they’ve been assigned to.

Although recruiters are usually hired for their excellent organizational skills and ability to maintain many deals with many different issues at once, they’re still human so that things can slip through the cracks from time to time.
If you are not prompt and follow up to give them the materials they need or remind them what they said about the follow-up with you at a particular time, you may not stay ahead of other applicants.

Conclusively, following up after an interview demonstrates that you are passionate about the opportunity at hand. Any recruiter sees this as one of the crucial criteria they look for in job seekers.

When following up after a job interview, you prove that you’re invested in a job and company. And finally, this is a beacon to a recruiter that you would be a high-quality recruit who would likely stick around for longer.

Compose a Thank-You Note

As mentioned previously, it is a mark of politeness and Essentials today to compose and send thank-you notes to maintain reasonable and positive relations.

Taking the time to create and send a job interview follow up message leaves the impression to your interviewers that you are appreciative, gracious, and thoughtful — all great qualities that a potential employee can have and are a rarity today.

But don’t just send a simple note like “Thank you for taking the time to interview me” — actually, each thank-you note generally should express three elements:

• Gratitude for your interviewer’s time
• Show of appreciation for gaining more information and insight into the position and company
• Enthusiasm for the role

Here is an example of a job interview follow-up email that includes all three of these points:

Dear [Interviewer’s Name],

I am highly grateful to you for taking the time to talk with me [today/yesterday]. I loved learning about you [exciting thing you learned from this person], and I was especially impressed by [quality or characteristics of the company or team that made you even more eager to work there]. Our conversation boosted my excitement to join [company] and help you all [achievement you would support in this role]. I am patiently waiting for your reply, hopefully with a favorable decision to work for you in the near future.

Best,
[Your Name]

Some additional points to keep in mind:

• Keep it precise, short, and sweet: No need for philosophy and long descriptions — after all, your interviewers are busy, too. As long as you include the three critical elements mentioned above, just a few sentences will do the job quite well;
• Stay formal and professional: Maintain a formal tone and stay professional, just as you would with any other professional communication, avoid punctuations, emojis, typos, etc.;
• Remain digital: While the sentimental value of handwritten notes is indisputable, it is often a bit too much for an interview. Moreover, if you mail it out, your interviewer likely won’t receive it when you have intended to.

Ask About What Follows

Generally, your interviewer(s) will describe to you clearly what follows on, what they need to proceed with, and when you will receive the response. However, sometimes they fail to provide this information during the interview, and you forget to ask during the interview.

It’s worth including a passage to the end of your thank-you note that addresses this:

“Please let me know what the next steps that I need to take or what other information I can provide you during the procedure.”

In most cases, the recipient will respond with the information you need as quickly as possible, but if it’s been a while, you are able to follow up once more.

Establish a Balance Between Patience and Persistence

Patience is a key factor here because, as every minute goes by, it can seem like an eternity without hearing back from the employer.

When you’re impatient to hear how your interview went, it is best to try to establish the delicate balance between patience and persistence.

Otherwise, you have to keep in mind that following up is persistent enough that they don’t drop the ball but not so constant that you start to annoy them.

That is why it is a delicate situation.

So how do you recognize the best time to reach out to them again?

Basically, it is recommended that you follow up again in either of the following scenarios:

• More than two days since they told you they would contact you;
• They haven’t responded in over a week.

This is not so rare, so there is no need to panic. It doesn’t always mean that they missed you out, forgotten you, or don’t want to proceed forward with you. It could simply mean that they need a little poking.

Compose and send a brief note that comes off as friendly and professional. Here is an example of the email message you should send:

Dear [contact name],

I hope everything is going well. I wanted to stay in touch about the [job title] role. I really enjoyed the interview with you and the team the week before, and I’m very interested in the opportunity. I’d love to know if there’s any additional information I can provide during your hiring timeline.

Thank you,
 [Your name]

Only one follow-up is enough to initiate your contact to follow up with you in most cases.

However, in specific scenarios, you haven’t received any response within a couple of days, but still, you might need to send one more message — something simple, like:

Hello, I Just wanted to check in here — anything I can help out with? Let me know!
Although there are exceptions, nine times out of ten interviewers will provide you with an update. If you’ve taken the time to interview – even if it’s not the news you were hoping for.

And indeed, in case they do not provide you with an explanation, or an update, try not to despair.

The best news is that each interview you go on helps you improve your skills for the next one that comes along. Remember the job of your dreams, and your perfect job is still out there waiting for you to come across it!