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What Should One Do After the Interview?
FattyBoeBatty asks:
"So I finally find the perfect company to work for. Unfortunately, they're only going to hire 3 out of the 200 people they're interviewing. So here's my question: I know there are a lot of slashdotters in charge of hiring - what post-interview actions do you like to see on the part of the interviewee? Is it possible for him/her to seem too enthusiastic about getting the job? How often should one call to inquire about the hiring process and re-express interest? What about mailing/emailing the company? Do you guys have any examples of when someone managed to stand out (or appeared too annoying)? I've never seen a question like this addressed in detail; I hope the Slashdot community can give me some sound advice."
Their calling shortly after an interview just disturbs me and doesn't help their position at all.
Ok, one thing to consider: if you are good and could have other interesting jobs, let them know so they can decide a bit faster.
--
Du Deutsch -> Du gehe Symlink
Its best to let the process run its course. If they have 200 applicants to deal with, then they do not want to deal with an over-enthusiastic person calling them all the time. Also, there is no such thing as a dream job. You will hate it within a few years. So remember to keep it in proportion. Also remember stock options are not cash, so do not fall for that one either.
It shows you are serious and when all things seem equal in a pool that size - the extra recognition can put you ahead.
Just my own take on it. I've been interviewing and then hiring for six years.
So I finally find the perfect company to work for. Unfortunately, they're only going to hire 3 out of the 200 people they're interviewing.
Sounds a bit odd, did they get 200 CV's or try to interview the whole lot- at one time.. it sounds a bit extreme..
So here's my question: I know there are a lot of slashdotters in charge of hiring -
what post-interview actions do you like to see on the part of the interviewee?
My preference is that they do nothing. When I've spent a couple of days interviewing it all becomes a bit of a blur, and I work off off notes at the end. In any case I have a pretty good feeling as to what going to happen with the candidate.
Is it possible for him/her to seem too enthusiastic about getting the job?
Yes. You risk coming across as a bit insecure to me. Maybe high maintainence, neither traits impress.
How often should one call to inquire about the hiring process and re-express interest? What about mailing/emailing the company?
If your working through a recruiter hassle them as much as you like, same with HR if you are going direct, that's what they are there for. - just be polite..
Do you guys have any examples of when someone managed to stand out (or appeared too annoying)?
Occasionally where in the interview the candidate has talked about some stuff. Getting a mail with URL's about it - I like that. It doesn't have to be tech, I'll have tried to pick up on your hobbies & pasttimes in the interview anyway, if it's stuff I'm into - them by all means.
I would just chill, keep the CV's going out. oh.. and try and find a _good_ recruitment firm to represent you. I know some of the guides say ring/email after the interview but with me it doesn't help.
Frankly the process can take a week, or 3 months.. and with 200(!) candidates it will probably take them a month to get through the interviews..
"I see. The fact that you...`can't explain'.. explains everything."
On most interviews I've done, we tend to make decisions that afternoon, or it takes a week or longer. Either way, after an interview, if I get an email or snail mail ack from the interviewee the next day or before, I tend to just file it (or not) with their paperwork (if I'm keeping it), and it doesn't really affect me. However, if I get something a few days afterwards, it does tend to refresh that person in my mind and I think that I've given them a couple additional points for that since they're showing continued interest in the position.
However, if I've gone past the deadline where I was supposed to give them an answer, they've got all the right to give me a call or otherwise inquire as to their status, and that raises them up a little bit more since they're continuing to show interest (even though I should have gotten back to them by then). But I think that I'd get annoyed (and it hasn't happened yet) if the candidate dogs me more than their initial note.
So be pleasant, persistant, yet not annoying. I'll be working on those traits myself here soon.
Is this thing on? Hello?
At the absolute most send an email or letter thanking them for the interview. Any more than this just sends up red flags for me. "INSINCERE SCHMOOZING WEENIE!" And only one letter is necessary. If you interviewed with multiple people, just send the note to the manager or senior guy, not everyone involved.
<WAR_STORY>
About a decade ago we interviewed someone who seemed okay (not stellar, but okay) technically, but just seemed oily. On top of that, he sent everyone involved this really obsequious sycophantic letter. I didn't want to hire him, but I was the junior guy and we needed warm bodies (remember when the economy was good?) so I got overruled. He did work out okay, but seemed more interested in maintaining his image than in maintaining the code. Eventually he transfered over to marketing, and everyone was happier all around.
</WAR_STORY>
In my experience, when we do real in-house interviews (as opposed to job fairs or campus recruiting) we're generally looking to fill one or two fairly specific positions. By the end of the day we can usually give someone a thumbs up or thumbs down. Even if you sent the email from your wireless PDA as soon as you left the building, it'll come in after the decision's been made. (At least the decision whether or not to add you to the short list for a second interview.) I admit I've never been in a situation where we've found 200 resumes that look even halfway worthwhile. Generally the list of people who get called at all is very, very small.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Being on both sides of the interview fence, I find that those that are a clear cut above the rest get the offer, and soon. The decision is usually made the day of the interview. I've never waited more than 12 hours for a positive response.
It used to be that you'd interview everyone and then pick. More recently (though this may have changed with the downturn), it's been, "If you like the guy let's make an offer" and move on to the next one if the offer is rejected.
You could've hired me.
I agree with the jist of what has been said here. The interview itself is 99% important. The post-interview is where you have the greatest chance of hurting things rather than helping.
A thank-you card is good. Excessive call-backs aren't. Also remember, what the poster previous to me said. They'll make an offer to person X. If it doesn't go through, they'll go to the next person, and the next.
The real question is if you're in the cut of people to be called, and how far down. But I can't think of a clever way to ask someone that at the appropriate time.
Hopefully at the end of the interview you asked when you could expect to hear, and asked permission to follow up shortly after that if you didn't hear. If you didn't, telephone and tell the interviewer that you forgot to ask.
Send a thank-you note stressing your intrest in the position and mentioning the dates discussed.
Send a thank you note. And mean it. If a manager is offended by a thank you note, as has been suggested by one other post, that is most likely someone you should not want to work for.
This used to be a common courtesy, but seems to have disappeared in recent years. Yes, a thank you note might help you get the job, but more importantly, it acknowledges the hard work on the part of the interviewing staff and indicates some level of respect for the recipient.
Christopher D. Morgan
Okay, not programmers, or network types, but we just hired some doctors (three to be exact). NONE of them were too annoying. One even called once (and only once) per week to check on the status. She was originally in a specialty for which we weren't hiring. Actually, her 'bothering' us led us to hire her. She was the most enthusiastic person we've seen in a while.
The other two didn't phone repeatedly, but did send a nice (snail) letter thanking us for the time, the interview, etc. That's a minimum.
Of course, this may not apply for other professions, but I can't see how common courtesy is a bad thing. Nor how showing interest is a bad thing.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
find out details about the company then make that ONE call and work it into the conversation. I think that if you can show that you actually looked into the company (details like who owns the company how the stock is doing who the competitors are where they stand in the market etc....), it show that YOU ARE CONSIDERING LETTING THEM EMPLOY YOU. Take the approach that you are your own company trying to work out a contract even if it's not contract work but don't seem arrogant in doing so. The last thing any SMART employer wants is a bunch of mindless drones who don't give a rats ass about the big picture and the goals of the company as a whole.
disclaimer: I don't work in HR.
"The Most Fun Possible on 4 wheels" is at SunBuggy in Las Vegas
it's how hot you looked in that low-cut business blouse that sealed the deal.
that, and not being an idiot durring the in-person.
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
A simple thank you letter to the person in charge of the hiring process should be sufficient.
I will say, however, that interviewing 200 people to hire 3 is a bit odd... if that's truly the case, then their HR department is seriously asleep at the switch. To hire 3 people, they should be interviewing 15 at most. The people doing the interviewing could not hope to rememver everyone they interviewed to make an informed decision. Keep this in mind before you accept any offers extended.
mr
And if needed, digging up some dirt on the interviewer always seems to work like a charm.
Has the economy tanked so badly that entry level doesn't exist anymore? Last spring I said "gee, I'll take some time off school" to find myself in a place I don't want to be in.
Now I feel I send out dozens of resumes a day and only get form letters saying "we recieved your resume". Every real live person I've talked to says that "they don't have a fitting position for me". If I even had interviews I'd be feeling better.
Okay, so that's a bit more exaggerated than it should be, but still, compared to last time when I was looking for a job, where recruiters from Texas wouldn't leave me alone for being stupid and putting my resume on monster.com, and now I get "Make Money Fast!" letters for being stupid and putting my resume on monster.com. I feel like I'm applying for jobs that say "we just need someone for the sysadmins to pick on when they get bored" and yet still get ignored.
My answer has been to start being pesky, because if I don't even know if my resume is just going to the ether, I'd like to have some reassurance that I'm not dead.
Am I alone here? Am I doing something wrong? It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't feel like I was being overly ignored. Is my resume that bad?
Send a thank you note. Don't call them or badger them until the deadline for them to tell you has passed (at which point it is okay).
Do not worry about seeming too enthusiastic. Employers want two things:
1) Someone who will do a good job
2) Someone who wants to be there
So, it is good to express how much you want the job. Don't make it sound like you don't have other options, but do make it look like this job is your first choice - that will help them to realize you will stick around for a while and that this job isn't just something for you to do until the economy improves!
Send the letter to the person most likely to have the biggest influence on the hiring process. Usually, this is the most senior person you talked to for more then 10 minutes. In the letter, thank the other guys at the interview, but only send one to the manager.
Before writing the letter, think about what went wrong at the interview. There is always a thing that you could have done better. For instance, explain areas where you feel that you did badly. If they asked you about OO programming, and you talked about C++, but they later explained how thier project is based entirely in Perl, you might mention your OO Perl experience here, if you didn't at the interview!
I have hired people simply because they seemed interested in what I did and seemed like they would have the drive to learn the skills they would need. People who love thier jobs are worth hiring, even if they aren't as "qualified" in other areas. I know few employees who love thier jobs but do poorly at them. I know plenty of lazy and poor performers that are "qualified."
Don't make a phone call. Make it formal, so that it can be shown to other people and discussed. Phone calls are quickly forgotten. Besides, a letter indicates that the job was worth some time and effort.
Mention things that you saw that would make you want to work there. For instance, if you saw certain technologies that you like being used, you might mention, "After seeing your site in-person, I am even more interested in this opportunity. I have always been interested in OO Perl on Linux!"
Be formal. This isn't the time to talk about your pets or hobbies. Keep the note's focus on thanking them for thier time and show them respect.
Finually, don't make demands, but do mention that you would like to hear from them again.
This is a lot of work to do right, but if you want a job, it is worth doing.
Being on both sides of the interview fence, I find that those that are a clear cut above the rest get the offer, and soon. The decision is usually made the day of the interview. I've never waited more than 12 hours for a positive response.
I've been on both sides of that fence as well, and I can easily disagree with that 12 hour window. Especially now that the tech market has had its downturn.
I know I've recommended a person highly after their interview, and had management and HR drag their feet so long that a week later the candidate calls back saying that they've gotten other offers, are we really going to make one or not? Sometimes it's that huge pile of resumes bogging them down, and sometimes they just drop the ball for no good reason.
And even for my current position, the company told me they'd make me an offer, and it took about 2 weeks to get something on paper. Every time I talked with them, the process get held up by budget reallocations, hiring freezes, etc. Finally everything broke loose, and once I had the offer, it took less than a day to finalize it.
Again, a lot of these problems are caused by the downturn... when it's an employer's market, they don't feel much pressure to hurry the process.
Of course, it could be at the level of phone screening 200 people out of the 1000 resumes they received. I certainly hope they aren't holding 200 in person interviews for just 3 positions.
And if they are, it seems like this company has some major problems with handling logistics. Be sure that this kind of wasted effort wouldn't affect the management in your area as well...
Last year, during the boom, I had the unfortunate experience to be forced (of course, it was well paid) into helping an American client filter out people for 12 technical jobs. Particularly, the 3 senior *nix engineers on the western end of our connection. It was a very big company with a big HR department, so there was no shortage of CV^wresumes to look through.
/. :-)
/usr on the production system. When you stop self-larting, can you recover the system without any downtime? How?
HR shipped to the new managers something like 4000 resumes that had already been filtered for keywords, experience levels, availability. Another group had priority to get people with CS or EE degrees first, so we didn't have a single comp-sci graduate in our pile. (Last week, they had their pick of 50 masters level CS or EE engineers to replace one of the original hires) From those boxes, we filtered them down to 800. HR contacted every one of those 800, and lined up over 400 initial phone interviews. The agravation started then, because not one remaining applicant had the required 5 years of *nix experience. 4 of us took over 4 days just to make those initial calls, and we culled the idiots leaving about 60.
60 techies then got in depth technical phone interviews. None of them met the minimum level of competence (have you ever installed a patch? vi or emacs? what does init do?), so we were told to just go with the best ones to call in for face-to-face interviews. HR also then put the senior job listing in ads, on monster, everywhere, which netted another 40 not-quite-qualified wannabes.
At that point, we had to fall back to gut feeling about friendliness, willingness to admit limitations, university and military experience, and other soft values. We chose 24 for the first round of on-site interviews.
Of those first 24, only about 4 met our lowered expectations. Then we did another 24 interviews, with only about 6 meeting even lower expectations. This had to be repeated until 12 people were actually hired.
The job offers were made to those who showed a willingness to jump into the *nix world, who realised that all hardware sucks and all software sucks, and those who didn't fall for troll/flamebait questions or believe in OS wars or vi/emacs wars.
Not one of the short list candidates followed up with letters or emails, but something polite and simple might have influenced us positively. Some of the total losers did try bombarding us regularly, I got the feeling they couldn't even get a job during the boom times.
So judge the time the hiring manager will be making the decision, and get a *single* follow-up letter or email in just before as a gentle reminder that you are interested and willing to apply yourself. Show them you can take the initiative, even if it was only ask
the AC
Sample phone interview questions:
vi or emacs? (no elaboration beyond that)
+10 - Either. Both. they're just tools
+5 - vi, because its everywhere
+4 - vi
+5 - emacs, for programming
+4 - emacs
0 - any discussion on why one is better than the other
-1 - I like graphical editors
-5 - huh?
-10 - I use wurd/notepad (we had a number of these)
You've accidentally typed rm -r
+10 - any positive answer
0 - I don't think so, but I'd try
-5 - what's self-larting?
-10 - any negative answer
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on