How to Follow Up After Sending Your Resume

Hiring managers get a lot of resumes. They receive so many resumes that sometimes the job is filled before they have had a chance to go through most of them. They are on a deadline to get the job filled, and by the time they have read over all one thousand resume they have received, their deadline will have passed long ago.

Getting Your Resume Noticed

There is no way to know if your resume has been read. What you can do is ensure that it is reviewed. One of the best ways to ensure that the hiring manager looks at your resume is to follow up with them after a week or two have passed.

Resume follow ups look a lot like cover letters. They re-assert your interest in the position, discuss why you are qualified, and request that they check your resume to see if you are a good fit. They are an effective way to make sure your resume is at least reviewed, and hopefully you will receive notice about if you are under consideration for the position.

Resume Follow Up Letter

Resume follow up letters should be formatted like cover letters. Here is an example of what a resume follow up should look like.

Dear [Name of Hiring Manager],

On [Date], I sent in my resume for consideration for the [position] at your company, listed on [Website Name]. I was wondering if you have had an opportunity to review my resume and cover letter and if there was anything else you would like to see in order to improve my candidacy.

As you can see, I have been working in [field] for over 10 years. During that time I have reached a number of achievements including:

• Achievement one
• Achievement two
• Achievement three

I am confident that I am a great fit, both for the position and with the organization, and I would love an opportunity to show you why I believe I can succeed in the role. I am available to schedule a meeting at any time. My resume is attached for reference.

Sincerely,

~Name

If the company hasn’t called you, chances are you are either not in the running for the position, or they are way behind going through resumes. This type of letter will help ensure you get greater consideration and may help speed up the process. It is a good way to ensure that the company takes the time to consider your candidacy.

Take Away Tips

• Follow up with resumes that have received no responses.
• Format your follow up as you would a cover letter.
• Be professional, positive, and state your case again.

How to Write Great Thank You Letters

Over the past month we have touched numerous times on the importance of thank you letters. They are one of the most overlooked aspects of the job interview process, and the only task that can benefit your job interview chances after the interview is over.

Of course, to do that you need the thank you letter to be good. Write a bad one, and you may as well have sent a photo of you flipping off the company logo. So here is how to make your thank you letter great.

Super Awesome Thank You Letter Tips

• Ask Super Awesome Questions

Thank you letters should not be one sided. You are not sucking up with no expectation of a response. You have curiosity. You have interest. You should ask questions. Make them good questions.

• Recap Your Best/Missed Points

You’re allowed to tout yourself a little bit. Give a little bit of a recap about why you’re great. You can either mention the best points that you went over during the interview or add a few that you forgot.

• Thank Everyone By Name

You have a choice. You can send individual thank you letters (that should all be different) or address them all in the same letter, but it is helpful if you address each person by name and spell their names correctly.

• Subtly Recap a Few Things

You don’t want to put “I learned XYZ at the interview” because that’s lame person writing. Instead, you want to subtly sneak a few things you learned into the thank you letter.

• Be Extremely Professional

You’ve met them. You’ve created a rapport. Now it’s time to forget that rapport ever existed. You should write with the utmost professionalism. Imagine that the interviewer is showing the thank you letter to their superior. Write well. Use industry terms. Write professionally.

Look at Thank You Letter Examples

Like cover letters, thank you letters are expected to follow typical patterns. You want your thank you letter to stand out in content, but not in style. So the best thing you can do is to find excellent thank you letter examples online and use them as a way of understanding what makes an effective letter. Do that, and follow the advice above, and you will have an excellent thank you letter.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Check out thank you letter samples.
• Thank everyone by name.
• Don’t be afraid to make yourself sound amazing.
• Ask great questions.

See Also

• Advice on how to write a good think you letter from Monster

Dear Employer: You Rock. Thanks For the Memories

Any and every legitimate job search website tells you time and time again how important it is to follow up with the employer after the interview with a simple thank you note. In today’s world, people seem to think they do not have to be polite to get where they wish to be. The reality is that the thank you note, as silly as it may seem, is still one of the most important aspects of a job interview. Forgetting it may easily blow any chance you have of getting the job.

Monster.com addressed this in an article this past year entitled “The Power of a Simple Thank You Note”. In their article they address several points that are strongly worth repeating here.

Reasons to Follow Up With a Thank You Letter

• Shows Written Communication Skills

Though they list this as number 5 in their article, it is perhaps one of the most important aspects of the thank you note. Your ability to write and communicate effectively is a major part of most jobs. A thank you note that is well written showcases your skill in writing. It acts as evidence that you can do your job effectively.

• Shows You’re Thoughtful

Employers don’t judge applicants based on credentials alone. They also look for personalities that will fit into the workplace. There is literally no such thing as a workplace that doesn’t appreciate thoughtful people. Or, if there is, you don’t want to work there, because your coworkers are probably jerks. Either way, showing you are thoughtful is a victory for you.

• Shows You Exist

You don’t truly know how many applicants are applying for the job. Thank you notes are a “Hey, remember me?” to the interviewer, forcing them to continue to think about your candidacy no matter how many people they have interviewed. The longer you stay on their minds, the better.

Additional Thank You Letter Benefits

Though it may be hard to believe, thank you letters are rare. Applicants simply don’t send them out nearly as often as they should, which is unfortunate since employers have started to expect them from strong applicants. Still, this is an advantage for you, since you will be one of the few to take time out of their day to acknowledge the employer.

Also, thank you notes allow you to reiterate your strong points (especially those that you did not emphasize nearly enough at the job interview) and give you the opportunity to show that you were listening. You can also ask questions that may be interesting to you (or at least interesting to the employer) and give yourself an edge long after the interview is over.

There is simply no reason not to send a thank you letter, and many reasons to do so. Thank you letters may have no ultimate effect on your ability to get a job in the end, but one thing is clear: They have the potential to benefit your candidacy, and a well written thank you note cannot harm it.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Send in a thank you letter at the end of your job interview.

How to Follow Up When the Interview Went Badly

It cannot be emphasized enough: Sometimes you do not want a job. As much as we here try to emphasize how to ace your job interview so that the employers want you, you must also be willing to accept that you may not want the employer. Interviews are a two way street. They are your opportunity to found out more about the company, and as you learn more about the company, you may not like what you see.

Still, you always need to follow up with the company and thank them for the interview. You never know when you might need to be in the company’s good graces. What if someday the company gets taken over and you can tell it has become a better place? What if in the future, you realize there is a different role in the company that is more to your liking? Even if you believe that you are going to write the company off completely, you want to follow up if for no other reason than to appear to be a model employee.

Reasons You May Not Want the Job

There are an unlimited amount of reasons you may not want the job. Some of them may be obscure, such as you went into the office and found that your ex-fiancé that left you at the altar would be your supervisor, and you thought they had run away to Mexico forever. The most common reasons, however, are as follows:

• You did not get along with the person that will be your supervisor.
• You do not like the products and services the company offers.
• You realize that the salary is not commensurate to the amount of work.
• You do not want to work the hours that the company expects.
• You do not know how to do some of the tasks the company requires.
• You are pretty sure you didn’t get the job anyway, and just want to move on.
• You do not like the location/travel requirements, etc.

You may not even know why exactly you don’t want the job. You simply know that something is off and it is not the right place for you.

What to Remember When You Follow Up

You never want to insult or alienate the company. You always want the company to think favorably of you, because you never know when you will need to be in touch with the company again. So when you follow up, remember the following:

• Always sound positive. Claim that you enjoyed meeting everyone and that the company seems like it is definitely going somewhere (even if it isn’t). Thank the interviewers for their time and consideration.
• Gently mention that you have decided the company or the position is not right for you.
• Thank them again and emphasize how well the interview went.
• If you wouldn’t mind working at the company, but have decided that you don’t like the boss or the tasks, mention that though you do not think that the position is right for you, you would like to be considered for other positions in the future.

It’s not too hard. Essentially you should send a thank you letter as though you loved the company, while mentioning briefly that you simply did not think the position was right for you.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Always follow up, even if you don’t want the job.
• Always remain positive. Don’t mention the things you don’t like.
• If applicable, request to be under consideration for other positions in the future.
• Thank them for their time and consideration.

Additional Links

• Awkward interview follow ups

How to Say Thanks for the Interview

Writing a thank you letter is considered a “must do” in today’s economy. Employers expect it, recruiters recommend it, and it is your best chance to remind your interviewers that you were a great candidate and you deserve the job.

Everyday Interview Tips has information on Thank You Letters that you can find here. The Wall Street Journal has chimed in with their own helpful tips in a recent article. The content isn’t groundbreaking, but the 5 main points are sound. The Wall Street Journal recommends the following:

• Give it an extremely thorough check for spelling, grammar and more.
• Remind the employer of your best qualities.
• Show the employer that you were listening.
• Try to sound like you fit in with the culture of the company.
• Write an individualized thank you letter to every interviewer.

Thank you letters are not the most complicated documents in the world. However, it is vital that your thank you letters are perfect. A poorly worded and hastily thrown together thank you letter will only serve to harm your chances. Indeed, the thank you letter is the last part of your interview, and you never want to leave an interview poorly.

Additional Tips

In addition to the recommended tips in the WSJ article, you should also add the following:

• Ask Questions – It is always a good idea to have a few questions for the interviewer.
• Mention a Follow Up – Tell the employer when you will call to check in.
• Keep it Short – Your interviewer is short on time. You are doing them no favors with a long thank you letter.

As long as you keep to those tips your thank you letter should be acceptable. Check out successful thank you letter examples for proper tone and language.

Take Away Tips

• Edit your thank you letter thoroughly.
• Ask questions to the interviewer.
• Restate your best qualities.
• Be friendly but professional.

Can I Text Message the Interviewer a Thank You or Add Them as a Friend on Facebook?

Technology is a wonderful thing. Computers allow you to perform complicated actions at a moment’s notice. Mp3 players allow you to listen to an unlimited amount of music on the go. If you want to teleport to another dimension, there’s probably an app for that.

However, the one problem with technology is that those that use it often mistakenly believe that everyone deems every aspect of it acceptable. That is not the case, and one of the main places you will see technology rear its ugly head is during a job interview.

Don’t Overuse Technology

Current college seniors have had the Internet, cell phones, and various high tech pieces of technology throughout the majority of their lives. They have been inexpensive and publicly accessible since these seniors were old enough to use it. It is part of their culture – a culture that doesn’t remember when the only computer colors were grayish sepia and white, and when using an ink printer involved a loud screeching noise and 20 minutes of your life per page.

If you are a recent graduate that has completed a job interview, it is important to remember that just because a technology is widely used, doesn’t mean it’s appropriate. Here are some examples of real things applicants have done after job interviews:

• Added their Interviewers on Facebook – Some young workers have thought it was appropriate to add those they met at the interview on Facebook immediately after the interview was over. Don’t. You are not “friends” and your interviewer does not want to see a tagged photo of you giving the finger and smoking from a Hookah.
• Text Messaging a Thank You – Believe it or not, some applicants believed it was appropriate to text message their thank you to the interviewers. “Thx 4 the Ntrvu” is going to guarantee you don’t get a call back.

Text messaging and social media are all great tools, but they are great tools for your personal life, not your corporate life. You can fill your personal life with as much technology as you please. At the job interview, only use traditional methods.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Don’t text message your interviewers.
• Don’t add your interviewers on Facebook.
• Don’t overuse technology.

Additional Links

• Yahoo Career Article

Do Employers Contact References?

References on resumes are tricky business. Common practice is to replace the references section with the phrase “References Available Upon Request” so that we are not flooding these individuals with phone calls by businesses you only had a vague interest in.

References are also odd in other ways. Consider all of the issues with references:

• References are handpicked individuals that are going to give you a positive review.
• References are legally required to say only good things about you.

The latter is perhaps the most hilarious aspect of adding references. The law requires that references say nothing bad about your candidacy. The worst thing that a reference can say about you is that they are unable to discuss your time with the company. That’s it. Otherwise, the reference is required by law to say positive things about your work ability.

It would appear as though references are not that useful. Why bother asking someone about your abilities when they cannot necessarily answer the question honestly?

Requesting References

Despite these shortcomings, if an employer asks for your references, there is a high probability they will contact your references. Some employers will not ask for references at all, but if a company decides to request the names and phone numbers of your references they are very likely to get in touch with them.

There are some exceptions:

• Some employers may only call one reference.
• Some employers will only call the references of candidates they are truly considering.
• Some employers will only call references if they are on the fence about your candidacy.

Otherwise, if they ask for your references, they are probably going to call them.

Why Bother?

Good question! It would seem as though that references are not that useful, since they cannot say bad things about your ability to do your job. However, there are ways to say bad things without saying bad things. For example, a lack of enthusiasm in the reference’s voice, or short compliments about qualities that are not that useful. References are also allowed to answer questions with “No Comment” which is essentially saying “The answer to this is so bad I can’t answer it legally.”

References are still useful for the employer, because there are ways to glean what the reference thinks without them saying bad things about you. That is why employers use them, and that is why if they ask for your references at the job interview, the safest assumption is that they will call them, because they probably will.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Only provide references upon request.
• Assume employers will call your references.

Additional Links

• Job Reference Laws by State

Remember to Contact Your References After the Interview

“Hello, may I please speak to Mrs. Sue Pervisor?”

“One moment please.”

…

“This is Sue.”

“Hi Mrs. Pervisor, I am calling on behalf of OverpayStaff, Inc.”

“What can I do for you today?”

“You were listed for a reference for Mr. Desi Porate. He recently interviewed with our company and I was wondering if you could tell me more about him as an employee?”

“I’m sorry, who are you calling for again?”

“Mr. Desi Porate.”

“And… He worked for our company?”

“He was listed here as Assistant Manager of Product Solutions between 2007 and 2009.”

“Okay… Desi… Desi… Hold on one second…”

…

“Okay, yeah, I see here. You are right, he was employed by us during that time frame. Looks like he left last June. What would you like to know?”

“You know what? I think we got what we were looking for. Thanks.”

“Okay? Well, have a nice day.”

**Click**

Most employers ask for references. References are usually people that you work with or know personally that are likely to say good things about you. Throughout your job search, it is likely that you have already prepared a list of references to pass to your employers upon request.

Therein lies the problem. The job search is a long process. Over time, even your best managers and supervisors are going to have you fade from their memory. While it is unlikely that any supervisor is going to forget you altogether, pauses, uncomfortable silences, and other behaviors by your reference reflect poorly on you.

Call Your References

You will be sending in dozens of resumes. Do not put your references on your resume. Put a note that says “References Available Upon Request.” That way you can control who knows your references and who will be calling.

Once you have supplied those references, however, it is vital that you call each reference and tell them about the job that you interviewed for. References must be warned in advance that a call may be coming so that they can:

• Prepare to say positive things about you.
• Prepare to spin things in a way that helps you get that particular job.

Perhaps most importantly, references should be warned so that they will know the call is coming and avoid any awkwardness that could damage your candidacy. Always, always call your references after each interview.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Call your references after the interview to tell them of the job.

How Not to Follow Up After an Interview

In our last post we talked about how to follow up after your interview. Following up should be considered an extension of the interview. Employers now expect their applicants to follow up and give greater priority to those that do so correctly.

However, every time you are in contact with an interviewer you risk damaging the good things you accomplished during your interview. Following up is a great way to improve your job interview chances, but you also want to make sure you avoid any serious mistakes.

Common Follow Up Mistakes

• Desperation

Recruiters will tell you that it is important that you always seem as though your services are sought after by other companies as well. Employers are more likely to value your potential contributions when they believe that other companies are also after you. When you follow up with an employer, you should not sound desperate about getting the job. Instead, you should ask interested in the job by asking questions about the position and simply restate why you are a qualified candidate.

• Rushing the Thank You Letter

Your thank you letter is an extension of your interview. It should have no spelling errors, it should have proper grammar, and it should maintain an attractive format. It should be as well written as your cover letter.

• Cut and Paste Thank You Letter

Write your thank you letter from scratch, based on what occurred during the interview. Employers can smell a thank you letter that was not written specifically for them.

• Calling Without a Plan

Calling your interviewers is a great way to thank them for the interview. Calling without a plan, however, can make you seem awkward. You should always know what you are going to say ahead of time during the phone call, including what you are going to ask and even how you are going to leave the conversation. Practice with a friend if necessary.

• Talking Too Long

Your interviewers have real jobs. They are busy. Try to keep conversations brief unless it is the interviewer that is doing most of the talking.

• Checking in Too Early/Too Often

Again, you do not want to seem desperate. When you check in about the position, wait at least one week and preferably closer to 10 days. Ideally you should ask the employer during the interview when to follow up.

Keep it Short, Centered, and Professional

There are two reasons that applicants follow up after a job interview:

• To be polite, friendly and professional with your employer.
• To keep yourself on the mind of the interviewer.

Interviews in many ways resemble a date. The longer you stay on the mind of your date, the more likely they are going to want a relationship with you in the future. By following up with the interviewers, you are making sure that you stay on their mind for longer, so that if they are on the fence about your candidacy, you push them in the right direction.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Take your time making sure you are ready to follow up.
• Keep your follow up brief.
• Be friendly but also professional.

Question & Answer – Should I Call Back After an Interview?

Question

I finished my interview today. Should I call them back? If so, when should I call?

Answer

Employers love to see applicants take initiative. Part of that initiative involves following up with the employer after an interview. There is one mandatory way to follow up and one optional way to follow up.

Mandatory

These days employers expect to receive at least a thank you letter. Thank you letters should be positive, professional, and contain standard formatting and information. Thank you letters do not have as strict rules as cover letters, but they still have rules.

You can also call the employer after the interview and thank them for their time. Calling the employer makes a much better impression than thank you letters, but there are rules you should follow:

• You must know the names and titles of those that interviewed you and thank them directly.
• You must call within the day (or the next morning if your interview was late). Do not call two days later.
• You should have an additional “reason for calling” so that the conversation is not strictly about thanking them. Perhaps ask them another question if possible.  It helps the conversation be slightly less awkward and gives you an opportunity to leave the phone call fairly easily once they have answered the question.

Calling is not mandatory, but a thank you letter is, and calling in place of a thank you letter may earn you bonus points provided you know how to handle yourself on the phone.

Optional

Days have passed and you have not received a call back about the job. You have the opportunity to check in with the employer. Checking in will allow you to show continued interest and potentially help you get an answer from the job so that you can move on.

Ideally you should ask the employer when to expect a response during the job interview. Then if you do not hear from the employer by the date they have provided, give them a call. If you did not ask during the interview, you can ask in your thank you letter. If you do not get a response, 2 weeks is considered the standard amount of time to wait before you follow up. Always follow up with a phone call.

Following Up is Important

Phone calls are a great way to make a lasting impression. They are more personal than thank you letters and fewer applicants take that kind of initiative. You do not need to call immediately after the interview, but you should still send a thank you letter. If you have not heard from the employers for a while and want to check in, a phone call after two weeks (or after they promised they would contact you) is advised.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Always write a thank you letter.
• Consider following up with the phone if you are a good speaker.
• Check in after two weeks to see where they are in the hiring process.