Over the course of your job search, you may begin to think that you’re on a carnival ride, thanks to all the ups and downs you’re feeling in terms of anxiety. While heading into an interview may be one of the most stressful tasks ahead of you when it comes to trying to land a new position, the days and weeks following these meetings are not exactly a walk in the park. As you play the waiting game and hope to hear from a potential employer, there are a few tactics that you could use to turn the odds of receiving an offer in your favor.
Don’t stand for silent rejection
Nowadays, one of the worst aspects of the application process is hearing back from the recruiters and business representatives with whom you interviewed. Generally, these people take your modern resume and all your other application materials so that they can review them, promising that they will let you know in a couple of weeks’ time. It seems that more and more frequently, though, you never end up hearing from these staff members, leaving you discouraged.
“Sadly, many times it is simple rudeness that is present when a candidate never gets a response after a job interview,” said HR expert Steve Kane, according to Forbes. “This should never happen at a sophisticated, progressive employer. Obviously, if someone is going through the effort of preparing for an interview, they deserve some idea of their likelihood of receiving an offer.”
Not only does this lack of response following an interview make you frustrated with a prospective employer – ultimately impacting your future relationship with this organization – but it can also impede your confidence in your job search overall. While there is nothing you can really do about blatantly rude companies who don’t see the importance of contacting candidates to inform them that they’ve been put on the chopping block, there are ways you can persuade employers who are still on the fence to extend you an offer.
Take action to make an impression on employers
Instead of sitting in front of your computer screen, constantly refreshing your inbox to see if a company has sent an email, you are better off taking a more active approach to your post-interview game plans. Mashable suggested that you do just the right amount of reaching out to people you’ve interviewed with to follow up. This way, employers won’t find you annoying due to your incessant emails, nor will they think you have no real interest in a position because you’ve gone MIA.
“You don’t want to pester until you get an answer, but rather keep yourself in [the hiring team’s] minds as they make the decision,” said Allyson Willoughby, senior vice president of people for Glassdoor, as cited by the source. “A great approach is to ask about their timeline for making a hiring decision before you leave the interview. This will help you to properly time your follow-up attempts. In addition, a quick ‘thank you’ [email] is always a nice touch.”
In addition to getting the timing of your communications down pat, you may want to vary your message subject matter so that it doesn’t seem like you’re begging. If you actively follow a company’s blog or page on a social network, then you should try to incorporate a snippet of recent news into your emails. This will demonstrate that you’re already fully invested in the business, keeping tabs on everything that’s going on, which will surely impress prospective employers. The key to executing this maneuver properly, though, is to keep it upbeat. If there is a massive controversy centered around a company, you probably shouldn’t be commenting on it in any of your emails – these representatives don’t need a reminder.
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