Last week, we discussed several key phases in the interview process. At this point, you have made it through the process and you can breathe easy. All that’s left is waiting to hear if you’ve been given the position, right? Wrong. There’s still quite a bit that you can do to aid your chances of being chosen.
The best way to increase your chances after the interview is to send your interviewer a personal thank-you note showing your appreciation for their time. It may seem like a simple concept, but you’d be shocked how few people actually bother to take this step. If possible, the thank-you note should be hand-written and, at the very least, personally signed. Never send a thank you note for any occasion via email. It feels impersonal and rushed.
Writing your interviewer a personal note also gives you the chance to fill in any gaps that may have been left open during the interview itself. Before writing your thank-you note, do a post-mortem on the interview experience and figure out how you think it went. The point of this exercise isn’t to beat yourself up or to praise yourself for doing well. The point is to find additional opportunities for action. Go over the interview from start to finish in your mind and ask yourself the following questions:
- Did I forget to mention anything about my qualifications?
- Would I change the way in which I answered any of my questions?
- Were any of my answers less than clear? Could I benefit from expounding on them?
- Were there any questions I couldn't answer that I "owe" the interview a response for?
From that list of questions, you should compile a list of opportunities and begin to formulate a response. Make sure you open the note with a sincere "thank you" and then move onto any points or clarifications that you want to make.
A post-interview note should always close with a request for the position. As we discussed in the previous post, when done appropriately, this shows that you are unafraid to go after what you want. This is a quality all managers look for in the right candidate.
The sooner you can get your note into the hands of your interviewer, the better. The fact that you reflected on your experience and took the time to personalize a response in this way will show how interested you are and go a long way to separate you from your competition.
Comments