Thursday 14 March 2019

🖋 How To Follow Up After Job Interviews With Great Follow-ups

Is it follow-up or follow up or followup? How you follow up after an interview is more important than you think.

Man writing a letter

Photo by Helloquence

This is a guest post by Carolyn K.

You wouldn’t take a pretty girl on one date and expect her to do all the work of getting in touch with you for a second date, would you?

I don’t care how charming you are. That’s a recipe for a lonely night.

The same line of thinking applies to job hunting. If you walked out the door of your job interview and thought that was the end of it, think again.

The follow-up is an oft-misunderstood art form. Too often a job is lost because a well-qualified applicant displays no more interest in the job as soon as the door to the HR office closes behind them.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Free bonus: The One Job Interview Resource You’ll Ever Need is a handy reference to help you prepare for any kind of job interview. Download it free now

5 tips to master the art of the job interview follow-up

1. Ask for a business card

Do not leave the interviewer’s office without getting a business card.

If the interviewer asks if you have any questions for him/her, make sure you ask for a business card. This will be crucial to the ensuing steps.

2. Send a follow up thank you email after interview

When you get home from the interview, shoot off a follow-up email to the interviewer, thanking him or her for his time and expressing your interest in the job, again.

This will show the interviewer that you’re serious about working with the company and will probably separate you from half the field of candidates who did not take time to take this action.

3. Then send a thank you letter

You should also utilize snail mail to show the interviewer how serious you are. While emails and phone calls can come across as somewhat cold forms of communication, handwritten notes are warm.

In your note, thank them for their time and address a few of the things you discussed in the interview.

For instance, if the interviewer mentioned that the company is looking for goal-oriented people to take on a new project, mention how you have exercised and demonstrated your ability to achieve goals. Tailor the letter to the company you’re sending it to.

job interview followup

4. Call for a status check

One week after the interview, call the interviewer’s office and ask about the status of the job search. If you can’t speak with the interviewer, leave a message on their phone.

One week after that, send another follow up email to the interviewer basically asking the same thing.

5. Don't overdo it

It is possible to come off as overly pushy. The fact is that the HR rep you talked to might be very busy with a lot of new hires. Do not cold call or email more than once in a week. Give them time to respond and when you’re on the phone with them, be courteous and do not simply ask, “Did I get the job?”

The follow-up (call or email) is a great tool in the interviewing process. It can separate the winners from the losers in the hunt for employment, but it will only help if you do your initial homework on the company and properly prepare for the first interview.

Finally- follow up: one word or two? Is it follow-up or follow up? According to Writing Expert Lynn Gaertner-Johnston, only when using the term as a verb is there NO hyphen e.g. “to follow up” is correct use.

What others are saying

Question of the article

Which follow-up tactic has worked best for you? Tell us in the comments.

About the Author

carolyn k portraitCarolyn is a guest blogger who writes about the job market, LPN programs, and resume workshops.

READ NEXT: How to Quickly Recover From Bad Job Interviews.

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Thursday 7 March 2019

💪 What Does “Vouch” Mean And What It Means To You

A quick way to be truly appreciated. So how does it work?

What Does Vouch Mean And What It Means To You

Photo by Edu Lauton

Which of the following scenarios is more powerful?

1) You meet someone at a networking event, and introduce yourself and what you do.

2) You meet someone at a networking event, and while you're talking, an unexpected 3rd person joins the conversation if only to say how much they appreciate what you do.

That's the power of vouching for someone.

At a local Internet conference a few years back, I struck up a conversation with one of the speakers after their talk ended and the auditorium had emptied. I liked what he had to say, and was surprised to learn that he was also from my original hometown of Montreal.

As we were chatting, another attendee came into the auditorium, immediately noticing us near the door. The attendee came over and immediately told my conversation partner, the event speaker, how much he liked JobMob. I in turn introduced him to the speaker.

The speaker was clearly impressed.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

That's how to vouch

Here's why the vouching worked so well.

You rock! You rule!

Relevant

Our conversation took place at an Internet conference, and the attendee (the “vouch-er”) was recommending a website (this one).

True

While it's debatable whether an opinion can really be true or false, if it can be confirmed by reliable sources, it's probably true.

Honest

The attendee's vouching was really what he thought and not the result of some preconceived marketing plan, and there was no incentive involved.

Unexpected

I hadn't beckoned to the attendee, who clearly came over of his own volition because he felt so compelled to share his opinion.

Credible

The speaker had already met the attendee earlier at the same event, so the attendee was a (somewhat) known entity whose credibility could be trusted. The fact that I – the “vouchee” – was present and actually knew the attendee also gave him credibility. Being present also gave me an opportunity to reinforce the recommendation.

How vouching is win-win-win

The vouchee – obvious, this is the person on the receiving end of a recommendation.

The voucher – people simply appreciate people who honestly vouch for others in an unsolicited way, as if they might turn around around and vouch for them too at some point. This builds the brand of the voucher as someone worth knowing.

The listener i.e. receiver of the vouching – they've just met not one, but two people seemingly worth knowing.

Vouching works best in person, but can also be effective online, such as on social media:

Question of the article

Who have you vouched for recently? Or, what's your most memorable vouching story? Tell us in the comments.

I originally published a version of this article on the terrific Personal Branding Blog.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more ideas on how to build relationships on your job search.


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