Everyone wants to know the result of a job interview as soon as possible, but when is it appropriate to prompt employers to give you an answer? Futureboard’s Joanne and Hayley share their tips.
Joanne Keilt, Consultant at Futureboard, says that good follow-up just after a job interview can leave a really positive impression on interviewers.
Joanne says: “If you’ve had a face-to-face interview, it’s good practice to write a short email thanking the interviewers for their time. That always gets positive comments in the office.”
According to Joanne, prompting employers or interviewers for the result of your job interview is not frowned upon, as long as it’s done in a reasonable time frame. She says: “It’s okay to prompt for an answer if you’ve been given a time frame the company is not following.”
When the deadline is coming closer, Joanne says “Prompting politely might give you a better chance to get the job you’ve applied for. Especially in large volume campaigns, by reminding them you are still interested- this might jog their memory and encourage them to let you know the outcome sooner.”
According to Hayley Measures, Consultant at Futureboard, deciding whether to prompt the interviewer for a result or not depends on the type of interview.
She says: “Always judge depending on the organisation and the style of the interview: They might be interviewing you through the HR department, who might not be able to answer you straight away”
Hayley says that when recruiters don’t stick to the time frame they’ve given you for results, it’s better to contact them via email instead of on the phone.
She says: “If you send an email you can get the chance to thank them for their time, for the opportunity to be interviewed and to remind them your interest in the company. If you prompt them on the phone it might sound quite formal and you risk becoming an annoyance to them .”
Hayley adds: “What if the interviewers are in the process of confirming whether or not you got the job? Calling them might put both of you in an awkward position, because they don’t know the outcome yet. If you email them, they can chose whether to reply or not.”
Hayley says you shouldn’t be too blunt with your email prompting: it’s obvious you want to know the result of the interview.
She says: “If you follow up with an email, don’t say, ‘You told me you’d get back to me by Friday and you haven’t yet,’ just renew your interest in the company and thank them again for their time.”
Hayley gives us some tips on how to act according to the time frame interviewers have given you:
- “If for instance your interviewers say they’d get back to you by ‘early next week’, to me that would sound like Monday, so I would give it one more day at least and contact them on Tuesday or Wednesday.”
- “If they say they’d be in touch by ‘later in the week’, I would give them the weekend if they don’t call you by Friday and then contact them on Monday.”
Finally, as Hayley says, think of how organised and responsive the company sounds: “Personally, if I kept prompting a company without receiving an answer, I would start considering if I really wanted to work for them!”
Picture by: Smashingopten
