When you finish an interview, what do you do? I know the first thing I usually do is call my parents and/or my spouse. I want to tell them right away how it went and I know they are impatiently waiting for an update. I then want to reward myself by binge watching my favorite show and most likely eating a burger from Shake Shack.
However, there a few other things to do when you finish an interview that can help determine your future:
Spend 10 minutes writing down how the interview went. You may want to include:
- The types of questions they asked
- The types of answers you gave
- Did you like the people who interviewed you? Could you see yourself working well with them?
- What did you answer well and what can you work on to better a future interview?
- Contact information of the people who interviewed you.
- Draft thank-you emails to each person who interviewed you.
- Write a thank-you note to show appreciation, do not write a thank-you note to impress someone or to ask for something.
- Make sure to write a separate and different thank-you note to each person that interviewed you.
- Try to include something specific that you discussed with each person to personalize the email.
- Let yourself sit on the email for an hour- do you have any follow up questions?
- Send thank-you notes before the end of the day.
- Ask your recruiter to follow up or set a reminder to follow up with the hiring manager.
A day or two later, send a LinkedIn request to the people who interviewed you. It is great to connect with everyone you meet, even if you do not get or accept the job. You never know what your future holds.