<p>I had a job interview on Aug 26. That’s 4 weeks ago. I’ve heard nothing since. However, the job continues to be advertised on websites to which I subscribe. I learned in the interview that the job became vacant on Sept 1.</p>
<p>I’ve come to accept the fact that the boss didn’t like something she saw in the interview. In spite of this, I am convinced that I am a perfect match for the job. Really, trust me. I’m not just a desparate applicant saying so.</p>
<p>Is it ever OK to get back in touch with the interviewer and say something along the lines of, “hey, I noticed your search is continuing. I’d welcome an opportunity to re-introduce myself and address any concerns you have about my candidacy.” </p>
<p>Of course I’d communicate that in a professional way, probably snail mail since I don’t have her email. The position is in senior management, reporting to a VP of a Fortune 500 company.</p>
<p>Advice? </p>
<p>(If you’re wondering why I’m so clueless about this it’s because I’ve been with the same company for 23 years. All my promotions have been well-deserved, but gained through a short internal selection process in which I was always the preferred candidate. I’ve never had to sell myself for a job; I’ve always been “recruited.” :rolleyes:)</p>
<p>I don’t think there is anything wrong with a follow-up phone call, email, or snail mail. You might get the most information out of an email – even if that means calling the company to get the hiring manager’s email address.</p>
<p>I would say something like – I want you to know I am still interested in xxx position with your firm … followed by 2-3 sell lines about why you are a great fit … and finishing with … I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.</p>
<p>My husband and I are both encouraging our son, in his post-college job search, to follow up with every interview, multiple times if necessary. We both hire employees for our separate firms, and we both note that the applicant that follows up often is the one who really wants the job and the one with the drive to do the job well once hired.</p>
<p>Hiring decisions can take many months. At my current employer, it usually is about 4 - 6 months until an offer is extended, and most often the candidate never hears until they get ready to send the offer.</p>
<p>As far as e-mailing them, I received little to no response to continued communication. I’d move on to the next job opportunity and hopefully an offer will come eventually.</p>
<p>I vote for recontacting - don’t see the harm in it! Now that you’ve had an interview and have perhaps heard/seen what they are truly looking for, maybe you can “sell” these in your 2nd ask. I too, feel that email is the way to go. (maybe request a “mail read” receipt if you are able???)</p>
<p>I’d contact the HR person who interviewed you and not the hiring manager. Ask the HR person for an update on the status of that opening and whether you are still being considered as a candidate. Don’t push or nag them or sound sound desperate - just say you are following up on your earlier meetings with them.</p>
<p>I hope you did already send a follow-up email about why you think you’re the “perfect candidate” for the job. Then a hand written quick note, sent snail mail, saying, “Thank you for your time”. </p>
<p>To get the person’s email address may take some detective work, but not much. Look at how the peeps in the company send emails: is it first <a href="mailto:initiallastname@company.org">initiallastname@company.org</a> or is it first name.last <a href="mailto:name@company.gov">name@company.gov</a><a href=“These%20aren’t%20real%20emails%20no%20matter%20what%20CC%20formatting%20says!”>/email</a> Go on a web site about the company, go to “Contact us” and try investigate. That’s the best way to contact this person. </p>
<p>Just like when your kid was college shopping and (hopefully) having a dialogue with his/her college rep, you should do the same here. My philosophy: “To know me is to love me” and this employer just needs to know you better. </p>
<p>He/she may even be wondering why they haven’t heard from you.</p>
<p>Until you receive a “thanks, but no thanks” signal, I would agree with previous posters about keeping in contact. The position may indeed still be open and budgetary issues may be holding up offers. My first job out of college many years ago required my persistance for several months after an interview process. In the end after I was eventually hired, the interviewer commented that the persistance was part of the reason that I was hired!</p>
<p>I have to respectfully disagree with coureur about contacting HR. As the veteran of dozens of interviewing cycles (independent consultant and some as an employee for hire, also a hiring manager), I can tell you that HR is NOT your friend in this process. They are the gatekeeper. The hiring manager can override them in a heartbeat (and will) if they want a candidate. The hiring manager will override THEIR OWN criteria that they gave HR if they decide you have something they want.</p>
<p>I think a letter to the hiring manager is good – you may have trouble getting an email address from the company, they don’t give those out as easily. You can’t always count on figuring out the email address from others in the company… some companies, even big ones, are inconsisent in how they set up addresses (things like mergers, how long a person has been there, etc. can make a difference). And you might not even know their “real” name (you think they are “Nancy”, but their email is “Claire.N.lastname” cuz Nancy is their last name. It may not bounce back, so you will never know if it went through. So unless you are somehow certain it is the right address, I wouldn’t e-mail.</p>
<p>Honestly, they probably aren’t wondering why they haven’t heard from you… I have never run into that situation in a job interviewing process, they usually have more resumes these days than they know what to do with. But it generally doesn’t hurt your chances to follow up with them.</p>
<p>And sometimes… you just don’t get the job even if you are perfect. Last year I applied for a job I desparately wanted and believed I was perfectly qualified for. It is (literally) the only position I have applied for in over 20 years that I REALLY felt could be a perfect job for me. Didn’t get it. Found out later that I was hosed by a guy in the management group that interviewed me who hated people with consulting backgrounds :(</p>
<p>I am and continue to be the hiring manager for many dozens of hirings for 30 years now. And I don’t disagree with what you are saying about the relative power and influence of the hiring manager and HR, but I stand by my advice. </p>
<p>It depends on what the OP’s goals are here. If you want to reiterate your interest in the job and find out where you stand and where they are in the hiring process, contact the HR person. Your continued eagerness will be communicated to the hiring manager. But if you want to annoy the hiring manager, go ahead and keep directly peppering him/her with desperate-sounding follow-ups.</p>
<p>I haven’t sent an email because the company hasn’t provided the hiring manager’s email. I did, right away, send a typed thank you via snail mail. In that letter I reiterated my enthusiasm and highlighted my qualifications. </p>
<p>I’ll put together another letter tonight to remind them of my interest.</p>
<p>I don’t think that one pleasant <em>short</em> letter after a gap of four weeks constitutes “peppering him/her with desperate-sounding followups.”</p>
<p>If the hiring manager is so irritable that they would be annoyed by a single brief letter in that period of time, then you probably don’t want to work for him/her.</p>
<p>(I’ve been a hiring manager, too.)</p>
<p>BTW, I would DEFINITELY not call. That would be annoying because it would put the person on the spot.</p>
<p>DB I interviewed for a university teaching position in April - huge application, LORs, essays. etc. Never heard from them. I called once to confirm that my materials had arrived. Over the summer, I happened to be in contact with a dean who was a friend of mine. I mentioned that I never heard and that I felt it reflected poorly on the university that I received no acknowledement of my app having been requested to put so much into it.
I got the job about a week after that. Friend denies she had anything to do with it.</p>
<p>A short letter makes sense. Provide your email address in case they want to respond that way. When I interview, I always ask the interviewer for their card…and I get it 90% of the time. That way, I can send an email thank you and follow up if I don’t hear anything after a few weeks. </p>
<p>On the question of whether or not you should contact HR, it depends on how much HR was involved in the process. Did they interview you? If so, do you have the email address of that individual? I don’t see any issues with following with HR if they established themselves as the go between in the beginning. It’s sometimes nice to have a contact other than the direct manager. </p>
<p>One last thing…I would NOT give up just because it’s been a few weeks. The corporate world moves real slow sometimes. I know one local company that’s been recruiting for a sr manager for 3 years now…crazy.</p>
<p>Actually, I think you should not only follow up, but you should have it marked on your calendar for followups at regular intervals until you hear something definitive. The question isn’t whether you should follow up, but how often and at what interval? (Once every 2 weeks? monthly?). </p>
<p>Follow up with the interviewer – keep it brief, and make sure the message gets across that you are still interested in the position and feel positively about their company. I think email is fine these days - it’s quick and unobtrusive – also easy for the person to give a truthful but negative reply without the embarrassment of face-to-face communication. </p>
<p>Be sure to check LinkedIn for listings relevant to that company. Don’t send an email to someone there that you didn’t meet or talk to yet.</p>
<p>"Is it ever OK to get back in touch with the interviewer and say something along the lines of, “hey, I noticed your search is continuing. I’d welcome an opportunity to re-introduce myself and address any concerns you have about my candidacy.”</p>
<p>That’s perfectly fine to do. In fact, it’s required to get some jobs. For instance, the former head of a top advertising company said that his company routinely turned down all applicants, and only hired those who called back to press their case.</p>
<p>Our small office recently advertised for (and hired) a new office manager. We provided only an email address for initial correspondence and were absolutely flooded with applications. I did preliminary phone screenings of maybe at most 20% of the applicants, and we did face-to-face interviews with 8 candidates. Some candidates did send us follow-up emails asking to confirm that their materials were received. One was a bit over the top with materials he sent and follow-up emails and requests. That, to be honest, was annoying. A simple follow-up email thanking them for the interview and expressing continued interest is fine, IMO. </p>
<p>To be honest, we did not respond to most of the follow up emails. My DH has worked for big Fortune 500 companies and has told me horror stories (and I am paraphrasing) of applicants who try to sue, after receiving acknowledgement that their application was received and logged into the company’s system, claiming they were the more qualified candidate and were somehow discriminated against. I don’t know how an external candidate would know any of that. Maybe the HR people posting on this thread can clarify/explain? Anyway, it scared me and caused me to be less willing to maintain any communication with applicants we weren’t considering or who we were not moving forward with in the interview process.</p>
<p>This I agree with. One simple follow-up e-mail is fine. But when I start getting bombed by multiple follow-ups I start thinking there is something wrong that candidate. If they liked you when you interviewed they are not going to somehow forget about you. If they didn’t like you when you interviewed it’s time to move on and spend your energies more productively elsewhere.</p>
<p>Like college application, when you look for jobs you need reaches, matches and safeties. Consider all steady jobs that pays a decent salary reaches like HPYM, you only get less than 10% chances to get in. Consider all company sales jobs that pays you a small salary but big bonus if you do well as matches, if you want to do them. Insurance is one of them, now a days, even sales jobs are difficult to get but it is easier than those reaches. Consider self-empolyment or commission only type as safeties, some times MLM type can also be considered.</p>
<p>Disappointment for the reaches is the norm, don’t count on an interview. I have had been called back for three interviews and still did not get the job.</p>
<p>I’d go straight past HR and contact the manager. That’s what I did and it helped me land my current job after college. There’s nothing wrong with reaching out again if you haven’t heard anything for a while… as long as you’re polite about it. Contact the manager directly, be friendly, and sell yourself a bit, but do not pester them – that will backfire. </p>
<p>I’d only limit myself to one “follow-up reach-out” and then, after that, make no more attempts and act as IF I had been rejected (that is to say, you should then divert your job search elsewhere for the time being). If you still never hear back, then at least you’ve already gotten started on something new. If you hear back and you got the job, then great! If you hear back and was ACTUALLY rejected (and you really wanted the job), then I’d try again to get them to reconsider (usually no harm in this as long as you’re putting forth a good case in your favor).</p>
<p>For example, I had gotten rejected from a job I applied for with a well-known bank in another state (I interview VERY poorly because of over-nervousness/mindlock/shyness). In response I sent them samples of my work and told them how long it took me to do (basically sent them things that take most people a week or two that took me a few hours). In the meantime I had gotten an offer from a different firm that I wound up accepting. When I was at the airport literally about to get on the plane to leave for my new job/move, the other firm called me back with an offer after they read over my email and saw my work.</p>
<p>So, there’s no right/wrong way to do any of this as long as you’re not pestering people.</p>
I’m not just a desparate applicant saying so.</p>