By Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter
Big Game Hunter’s Jeff Altman discusses what to do after an interview. If there are any positions regarding recruitment, those positions would have been filled years ago. I don’t do recruiting anymore. We edited the transcript, but not the show itself.
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Now, you know, most people are exhausted when they finish an interview. It takes a lot of stress and energy to conduct effective interviews, whether over the phone or in person. And, you know, when the interview is over, the candidate (i.e. you) will often breathe a sigh of relief and be grateful that it’s over.
You know, I’ve done it. I’m done. I think I’m doing pretty well.
But, you know, we’ll see how things go. So what do you usually do? Oh, most people just, you know, pray that they get another interview and they get an offer. But there are ways to influence employers.
Now, if you’re terrible at interviews, none of this advice will work. If you do it well, as between you and one or two other people, these behaviors are often enough to set you apart from the competition. Because one thing I’ve learned from talking to employers over the years is that they’re looking for a tiebreaker.
They’re looking for someone who not only inspires confidence in their ability to solve problems, but who can do things that convince employers they won’t turn down the job. Let me give you an example. I had a client contact me about a week ago and say, is so-and-so still available? I said, let me check.
I will get back to you. They interviewed him three weeks ago, three months ago, and a new position opened up that they thought was right up his alley. Great.
Therefore, he completed a phone interview with HR because a new HR person was involved in the process. Then a day or two before, conduct an interview with the overall head of the functional department where he will be working. So it’s not just his line manager.
This is his boss’s boss’s boss. Clearly a superior person. So I sent an email to HR to let them know his feedback on the interview, what he was told, which included that there was going to be another person being interviewed next week and they would make a decision sometime next week.
So I sent this to HR. That evening I received a reply from them saying that what he had been told was true but that the other party was delaying the arrangement. So we thought he might not be interested, at this point, in what was going on with my client, in his favor.
He puts himself in the position of someone they’re really eager to hire because the other person doesn’t seem to care. In answering several questions in the interview, he positioned himself as someone who was excited about the job, which is what he excelled at in promotion form. So it’s important to do something like this.
So I gave him some advice. I’m going to talk to you about some of the things I tell people to do after an interview. The first thing I tell people to do is jot down some notes afterwards.
Why? Because what often happens if you’re interviewing with a lot of companies is that the jobs start to confuse you. You confuse one job with another. You have questions that arise.
This is very natural. You’ll probably forget about them after two weeks. Now, that’s not the case with this guy.
But imagine you’re interviewing with four or five companies. You are actively looking for work. You’re trying to get as many interviews as possible.
You’re interviewing for a lot of places and suddenly, things get confusing for you. Which job is which? So I want you to jot down some notes immediately after the interview. Who you talk to, what they tend to ask you, what the tone and tenor of the conversation is, what they tend to focus on, what goes well and what doesn’t go so well.
Write down as much as you can remember. Now, why is this important? Well, number one, it’s a way for you to report back to yourself on where the interview might have gone down if you didn’t get the job. If you do something wrong, there will be signals letting you know where you can fix it.
So, I would just say, if you’re working with a recruiter, this way you can give them a good debrief after the interview so they know everything that happened in the conversation, what went well, what didn’t go well, what questions you have about the company and what they’re working on. If it comes down to offering time, this will be a way for you to help yourself in the conversation with your employer. Another thing is the idea of sending a thank you email.
Now, I know some people believe in handwriting a letter. I know some people believe in mailing word-processed letters. My point is, if you mail something, by the time they receive it, they’ve made their decision and there’s no going back.
All you ever want to do is influence how decision makers view you. Now, what can you say in a thank you note? Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me. I’m really interested in this character.
You can ask a few questions here, but I really don’t like doing that unless they say we’re going to give you a quote. Can we arrange a time to talk? It’s okay for me to have a few questions for you, but asking them via email after the interview is not a good decision for you. So basically, writing a thank you note involves thanking them for taking the time to talk to you.
Now, all you have to do is make sure they know your name again. You can now talk about some of the positives about you and your role as a candidate for this organization. So you can now reinforce the reminder to yourself of some of the good things that happened during the interview by jotting down some notes.
You can try to fix some errors that may occur. So, for example, if they’re doing some version of a technical interview with you, you can try to correct wrong answers here. For example, you might say, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that sometimes candidates feel a lot of pressure when you’re interviewing over the phone or in person.
Maybe you’ve felt this way before. I know one of the questions, but I didn’t answer it to the best of my ability. That’s it. . . You know, when I left the interview, I realized my answer was incorrect.
Let me provide you with an improved answer. What you do is try to correct that for yourself so they know you know it’s not the right answer and provide the actual correct answer. Now, sometimes that doesn’t make a difference.
It doesn’t matter. But you are trying. Finally, you can conclude by saying, what are the next steps in your process, when can I expect to hear back from you about next steps, questions like this give them the opportunity to communicate with you again and discuss next steps in the interview with you.
So again, you want to take notes immediately and make sure you have a clear understanding of the position and what you were told so that you can address these issues in future interviews. Then you send a thank you email to help them remember you again.
Have a nice day.
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