Job Seekers: Think Like a Recruiter – Part 10

Congratulations on surviving the interview. Unless yours is one of the rare cases where everything falls into place on the first try, this wasn’t your first interview and it may not be your last. Hopefully, thinking like a recruiter gave you an edge over those who remained in the rut of thinking only about their own agenda regardless of the consequences. But now you are faced with the age old question about how to build on the success you have created and move forward. What does the recruiter expect? If you do a Google search on “interview followup” you will find “About 4,170,000 results.” I know this is not an exact science, but it should be evident by scanning just a few “expert” articles that there is more than one opinion. Rather than pick one or two experts to believe, choose the course of action that best fits your game plan at the moment. Personalizing your response in this case is no different than any other important decision in your life and whether this is a physician, financial advisor or job coach the final responsibility is yours.

Regardless of the action you take, most experts will agree on one thing: Doing nothing is not an option! I have urged you to be active and visible in all other aspects of your job search, so my advice is to continue with that thought process. Being passive can result in opportunity passing you by. There are several stages left in completion of the process and failure to touch any one of them can end your chances.

1. Interview Day (or Before) – Some companies make it easy to follow-up by giving you a detailed itinerary of your interviews listing the names and contact information of each interviewer. Others may not provide such a list, but most people you meet will offer a business card…and if they don’t you should ask for one. At least walk away with names (correctly spelled) and email addresses (correctly formatted). Think ahead about the sinking feeling you will have by thinking after the fact, “Damn! I forgot to get names and email!” and don’t let that happen to you. It is perfectly OK to ask your host for the day or the recruiter to help you fill in the gaps. Don’t forget to make a note of others who helped you during your visit to the company. It is always makes a good impression for a hiring manager’s administrative assistant to say, “Wow! That person you interviewed today just sent me a thank-you email.” No, that won’t get you the job, but it does indicate the kind of employee you would be and in a close race with tough competition it will mean something. Timely response after the interview can be complicated if you have a long interview day or travel is involved. You could actually get ahead of the game by beginning to format your responses before the interview and fill in the blanks afterward.
2. Immediately After Interview (or Before) – Give feedback to your recruiter or host. If you are dealing with a good agency recruiter you probably won’t have to make that call because they will be on the phone with you right away. Immediate in-house feedback should be verbal and face-to-face if possible, but a quick phone call while you are still in the building is a good idea if the recruiter is receptive to the idea. Be positive in your comments, reiterate your interest in the position and then listen. This is an invitation for their feedback which will be useful information. It also opens the door to ask, if you don’t already know, what to expect afterward regarding follow-up and timing. Both recruiters and job seekers are marketing a product. If you get positive feedback in the form of a sales “close” where the recruiter is further describing the benefits of employment, take that as a good sign. Don’t forget your “close” as well by asking when you could expect to start work if things proceed as you hope. Yes, some of this is gamesmanship, but if you operate in an information vacuum you will not be able to formulate an informed choice as to which direction to move your search. Keep your feedback radar on and focused at all times to plot your course around any negatives. If you sense any misgivings or unanswered questions, address them if you can but don’t make a snap comment that you will regret later. Think about your feelings and compose a detailed response at a later time.
3. Interview Day +1 (or Before) – Some companies will take their time in responding or choosing a final candidate. Most of the time this is for a legitimate reason and not that they are ignoring you. The most common reason is that the interview campaign may go over several weeks and your position within that time frame may determine when you get the word. Since there is no way you can possibly know about all the behind-the-scenes discussions or what kind of competition you are facing, don’t let a feeling that everything went superbly give you false confidence and lure you into believing that follow-up is unimportant. If you were the last one interviewed in this cycle, there may just be a round-table discussion immediately after you leave to discuss the relative contributions which could be expected from all candidates interviewed. An immediate formal response, or as quickly as logistically possible, is imperative! Email is the medium of choice for timely follow-up. Even the experts who will recommend a written response or a hand-written reply will agree that paper resumes and paper responses are slow and possibly obsolete. The paper response is a nice touch that can add clout to your presence when others candidates fail to respond. The only persons you should really “thank” are those who went out of their way to make your visit pleasant, such as admins, coordinators and receptionists. While it is not really necessary to say “thank-you” it is not wasted on recruiters, hiring managers and interviewers. Your response to them should really be a concise feedback focused on specific ways you can address points brought up in your interviews. Never send the same email to everyone. It will be noticed and seen as laziness on your part. If you were able to steer the interview through your answers, you should have several key points which can address each interviewer’s conversation, further reinforcing your value and possibly influencing their input on hiring you.
4. Interview Day +7 (or Before) – Hopefully you are not unsure about deciding on when to call the recruiter or hiring manager about the status of your interviews. The final in-house conversation before you exit the building should include an answer to the question on when you will hear an answer. It is all about setting expectations, so if you are given a verbal contract that the answer will be coming within a week it is perfectly acceptable to call if you have heard nothing. This should never sound like the kid yelling at his mother: “But you PROMISED!” Many things are on the recruiter’s desk, multiple job openings, multiple candidates for each job, but most will not forget about you. If you were told it was OK to call, do it. If you were not told explicitly to call but it was inferred in your conversation, do it. This is another situation where it may be important to fine tune your listening skills to hear what is not being said as well as the actual words over the phone. You are inquiring specifically about the status of the opening and your chances for filling it, but in general you are also listening for clues to the inside track on the discussions. It is another opportunity for you to bring up any new points and to find out more about timing. It is always better to ask “When can I expect to hear from you?” than “When can I call you?” because you are asking them to make a thoughtful comment and then the verbal contract originated from them and not from you. I should also point out that there is another reason that the feedback may not be as timely as expected. Can you handle the truth? If you are in the running for the opening but not selected, you may be a back-up to the first choice and they are waiting on an answer from #1. This is really not a bad thing to happen, but recruiters are sometimes reluctant to tell you up front that you were the second choice. In fact, if you are under consideration and were not selected, the good news is that you were not eliminated and may in fact be the first call when there is another opening. Don’t take this as a slap in the face because there is usually only a fine line between the top two candidates. You are not being told that you are unqualified, just that someone else happened to be more qualified for this particular opening at this particular time. If you are not under consideration, you would have been informed that you did not get the job. Period.
5. You Received an Offer – This is the news you were waiting to hear. Don’t immediately jump into negotiating mode, but listen to all the details and ask questions if you don’t understand any part of the offer. It is important to let logic take over your actions rather than emotions. This is a life decision that will impact your career in the short term and longer. The most important question at this time is “When do I need to give you an answer?” Unless this is the dream job come true, be careful about committing one way or another until you have thought seriously about the advantages and disadvantages of accepting or rejecting the offer. Some will suggest that you should always negotiate the salary or benefits, but be careful. Some things will not be negotiable and you should find out where the danger spots are in this minefield. In small companies, there can be substantial wiggle room in a salary offer, but in larger companies with layers of bureaucracy, understand that you are asking the recruiter to go to bat for you and recast the offer already approved that may have taken days to accomplish. Make sure that your justification for more money is based on your skills and accomplishments and not about the fact that you are “disappointed” or that you “expected more.” Never bring up facts not related to the job, such as your commuting distance, cost of living difference, or family difficulties unless they are directly related to your being able to perform the duties of the job. Relocation calculations, COLA and other aspects of working at the company are the same for you as they are for other employees and have probably already been considered, so be careful that you are not perceived as being a prima donna who expects better treatment.
6. You Received a Rejection – Always ask if the recruiter or hiring manager can give you any specific reasons for not getting the offer or suggestions to become more qualified. Sometimes you will get useful information and sometimes you won’t. Think like a recruiter: What would you say when asked that? While you are giving that a thought, think about the litigious environment we live in and understand that company policy may be to give only benign feedback to keep from being sued or charged with discrimination. This is probably the most sensitive time in your discussion with the recruiter since your first phone call. If you have formed a personal relationship as well as a professional one, you stand a better chance of getting honest feedback. It is not a good idea to argue or appear to be belligerent at the message or shoot the messenger because the final decision has been made and discussed before you got the call. The only thing you can do at this point is to restate your admiration for the company and your continued desire to work there. In my career, the notes and emails I received after delivering bad news are the most touching. I think most recruiters like to know that even in doing the tough jobs they are appreciated. In several instances, the rejected candidate was later invited back and was hired into another position. You can correct a skill deficiency, but you will never overcome a perceived attitude problem. Keep in touch after the rejection. Don’t stalk the recruiter, but follow them on social media outlets and continue the dialog.

When you join a new company, it is an exciting and frightening experience at the same time. Your rollercoaster of emotions can cloud or mask the immediate tasks at hand so pay attention to detail and follow instructions. I am not exaggerating when I say that catastrophic situations can happen when you think you know more than the experts advising you. How bad can it be? I’ve seen people miss the deadline date for benefits and suddenly realize that it is impossible to get health insurance until the next annual enrollment. I’ve seen new employees missing their first few paychecks because they failed to provide the legal documentation necessary to get them into the payroll system. I’ve seen people forfeit their relocation benefits by not working with the relocation company handling their case. I’ve also seen employees terminated because background checks revealed serious inconsistencies with information provided regarding degree completion, previous employment, or criminal activity. All such circumstances are avoidable if you think like the recruiters and other people who administer the programs and are bound to uphold policy equitably and be compliant with legal requirements. They do not want to be traffic cops, so pay attention and don’t force them into this role.

This is the final installment of a ten part series on job seeking with a recruiter’s mindset. Experts will give you advice on the details of a job search that will go beyond the limited information that has been provided here. The process is so complex that it can overwhelm anyone, especially when livelihood or career progression is in jeopardy. Economic times change and the details of how to find employment will hopefully become simpler when there is a resurgence of private sector jobs. Technology is also a big driver of change. We may be moving into an era of electronic submission and response that will make even today’s social media advances seem like cave drawings. The consistent best methodology is allowing thought processes to go beyond self and “walk a mile in someone else’s moccasins.” For a job seeker to visualize the process from the external perspective gives them an advantage at a time when they need a competitive edge.

Comments on this series are welcome and vitally necessary as input for future articles on the job seeker experience. Job seeker input on how these articles either enhanced or confused their search will be especially constructive. Requests for new articles on additional topics or clarification are also helpful. Recruiters should not expect an apology or retraction for a difference of opinion because as I have said many times that is the nature of our profession. Any factual misrepresentation or errors will be acknowledged, corrected and published. As long as there is a need for talented employees in commercial enterprise and a need for individuals to earn a living, there will be an ongoing need for a continuing dialog about the process that brings them together.

Job Seekers: Think Like a Recruiter

• Part 1 – Beginning the Process
• Part 2 – Who Are the Recruiters?
• Part 3 – Inventory of Skills and Accomplishments
• Part 4 – The Resume
• Part 5 – Cover Letters
• Part 6 – Creating a search plan
• Part 7 – The Active Search
• Part 8 – Being Visible
• Part 9 – The Interview
• Part 10 – Post Interview, Offer and Epilogue (this article)