The Best Interview Follow Up Checklist

The Best Interview Follow Up Checklist

Knowing how to follow up after one or more interviews can be confusing even for the most savvy job seeker.

Interview Follow Up Checklist

Here is a checklist of things you can do to leverage your post-interview activities and interest from potential employers.

1. Find Out The Next Step

You must always ask what the next step is. One of the most discouraging situations is to believe an interview went well – only to hear nothing back from the company. One way to hedge against this is to get a verbal commitment as to the next steps. If the company says they will contact you no later than next Wednesday – you know you can safely follow up on Thursday if you have not heard back from them.

2. Don’t Think The Worst

If you have not heard back from the company you interviewed with, please don’t assume they are not interested in you and never ever act annoyed or defensive. Leave short, friendly, professional messages confirming your continued interest.

3. Use Your Common Sense

Don’t pester – but be persistent. Try to use your intuition based on the people and the corporate culture you are dealing with to know how aggressively to follow up after a job interview. Some companies love aggressive post-interview follow up, as it is part of their culture. Other companies might find it off putting.

4. Leave A Great Follow Up Voicemail

You can say something like: “Hi Mr. Brown, this is Mary Elizabeth Bradford. It’s Wednesday morning and I am following up on our initial meeting, and I’m very excited to connect back with you. I will be in the office all day today; my number is 212-555-1212. Thanks and I really look forward to speaking with you again.” Don’t tell them you will call again if you don’t hear back from them. They may wait for you to do just that!

5. Send A Thank You Letter

I find that hard mail is much preferred over email for thank you letters. The best way I have found to write powerful thank you/after-interview letters is to mirror, match, and repeat back a summary of key points you discussed in the interview. To do this right, you will want to be taking short notes during your interview. The primary things you want to pick up include their main challenges, the kind of person they are looking for and anything positive they shared about you and your potential candidacy. Keep your letter short – under 200 words. Yes, you read that right!

6. Include A ‘P.S.’ In Your Follow Up Letter

Do you know what always gets read in a letter? The P.S. or post script. If you have occasion to write one, it’s a good idea. Just be sure what your P.S. says is meaningful enough. No soft statements like, “P.S.: Did I mention I am a team player?”

7. Send A Follow Up List Of Short Testimonials

References, endorsements, and testimonials almost always have a greater impact than any other piece of information we can give a potential employer. That’s because they come from a third party perspective, which legitimizes you and authenticates what you are probably communicating with them yourself.

It builds trust very rapidly—more rapidly than any other way I know. Suffice it to say—having a page of testimonials you can use as a “leave behind” or attach with a post-interview thank-you letter is one of THE WISEST moves you can make in your job search. It will “seal the deal,” so to speak.

These tips have helped thousands of job seekers reach their career goals easier and quicker and I know they will help you too. I wish you every success in your job search.