19 June 2018
In this blog, Chloe Hung, Amazon best-selling author, gives advice on step to take following an interview.
Now that you are finished with your interview, you may be feeling excited to hear back from your interviewers because you’ve done all the necessary preparations and you’ve given your best shot during the interview. But patience is key here because you don’t want to annoy your future employers by sending them never-ending follow up emails.
The first thing that you should do 24 hours after your interview is to send a thank you email or hand-written letter to thank your interviewers for their time. In this modern age where employers get swamped with hundreds of emails, it’s best if you send a hand-written letter to thank your interviewers. Not only will this make you stand out from the crowd, it will also convey your sincerity and add a touch of personalisation to your thank you note.
Remember, thank you notes are meant to be short and not long. Simply summarise some of the key points that you’ve discussed during your interview and thank your interviewer for taking the time to interview you. Be sure to keep your thank you notes as brief as possible.
Once you’ve sent your thank you note out to your interviewer, be patient and wait for at least 2 weeks before sending a follow up email. Most interviewers will usually give you a rough estimate on when you should expect to hear back from them. If they don’t, be sure to ask this question at the end of your interview.
If the interviewer tells you that the hiring process usually last for about 3 weeks, do not follow up with them 2 weeks after your interview. This will potentially annoy your future employer.
Be patient and trust that your future employers are still in the process of considering you.
Once the stated hiring period is over and there is still no news from them, you may send one follow up email to them. Be sure to use an email subject line that conveys the purpose of the email to increase efficiency. Employers usually get swamped with hundreds of emails every day and stating the purpose of your email in the subject line helps employers save some email reading time. An example of a good email subject line is: Follow Up-Interview on Thursday at 10 AM.
Next, be sure to keep the body of your follow-up email simple and straight-forward. Greet your interviewers by their first name and state the job title and position that you are following up for. Include your interview date as well. Reaffirm that you are still interested in that particular position and ask for an update in regard to their hiring decision. Be sure to finish the email with a “thank you” and sign off with your first and last name. Remember, keep your email short, to-the-point and well-spaced which means about 2 to 3 sentences per paragraph.
Always proof-read and run a spell-check before sending your follow-up email. A mistake in your email will not leave a good impression on your employer. Once you’ve sent your first follow-up email, wait for at least one week before sending a second follow-up email. You may also send your second follow-up email to another person like somebody in the department you interviewed in or HR if you’ve been emailing the hiring manager all this while and they’ve gone silent.