After you have tweaked your resume to perfection, donned that new suit and landed that interview, you find yourself faced with a new hurdle, waiting for the response.
Welcome to the next challenge. Has it been two days? A week? 10 days? When is the best time and best way to reach out and get a status report about your interview? You know for sure you nailed that interview. So what’s going on? Doing nothing at this point can result in ‘nothing;’ not your desired outcome.
Should you be reaching out? Most definitely! So what’s the next step?
- Who was the recruiter, the person who interviewed you?
- Compose an email. This message can make a big impact. Let your vet skills come into play with initiative and professional assertiveness.
- If you do not hear back in 48 hours, it’s time to make a phone call.
Most importantly to remember, procrastination is the enemy.
How to Follow Up with an Interview You Have Not Heard Back from?
We have all been there. You go to an interview coming out feeling great. Everybody seemed to like you, and while you are heading out the recruiter says they will be in touch. BOOM! You never hear back from them. It’s been 2 days, 4 days, 1 week…. Do you know wait for them to contact you or should you make contact?
Problem
The challenge here is that you don’t know when to reach back out, how to do so, and who you should be addressing. What is the best way to reach out?
Should you call them back? That might be too direct and if you do call, who should you reach out to exactly?
Should you email them back? What are you going to say and who are you going to reach out to exactly?
However, the minutes are counting down and you KNOW if you do nothing; this will just be another missed opportunity?
What do you do?
Solution
If you are reading this right now, then you are in luck. The unfortunate reality is interviewing is as frustrating for the job hunter as it is for the people on the hiring side. Procrastination occurs in hiring all the time and your best solution is to create urgency by introducing interest. People have unrealistic expectations and this applies to hiring as well. Hiring managers and teams often interview for roles from 3 months to 21 months. There never seems to be right (unicorn) person or the right time.
Think about the last time you bought something? People often want what they do not or cannot have, because why would you want something that nobody else wants? This fact of life is also relevant in hiring. If the hiring teams knows that you have another offer on the table, actively interviewing, or getting farther in the interview process for other companies (particularly their competitors) they will want you more. Why? Because the truth is no company is EVER going to MAKE AN OFFER to somebody they are not excited about. The hiring team would never sit around a conference table and say, “emmmmmmmmmm; yeah not the greatest; but lets give that person the shot any how.” This never happens. You have to create urgency by insinuating that other companies are excited about you and they should be too.
Implementation
Let’s talk about who you should reach out to, there is only one person that you should reach out to that is the recruiter that put you in that interview in the first place. Draft an email and if you do not hear back within two days, get ready to call. The best time to call is right before lunch or 4:30 PM right around that time most people are just counting the minutes to go home.
Impact
This is going to show the team that you are respectful, interested, and most importantly of all not afraid to be confrontational. Be a Product Manager requires you to be assertive; show them that you are willing to do that.
