Interviewing

What to Do After a Job Interview

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Congratulations, your interview went well and you’re excited. It is not the time to rest on your laurels—you’ve got work to do! Here are the steps you should take following your interview to keep the momentum going:

  • Send a thank you note. Send a separate note to each person who interviewed you. Your thank you notes should be sent no more than 2 days after your interview; the next day is even better. For government interviews, you should use an email note.
  • Keep applying for positions, even while you wait to hear back on this one. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. For one thing, there’s no guarantee that the jobs will actually get filled. The budget for the new position might not be approved. Or the responsibilities of the job opening may be distributed to one or more existing employees. Or an internal candidate may have suddenly become available, and the position is offered to him or her.
  • Develop any specific skills that were mentioned in the job interview but that you’re weak in — for example, specific software platforms. Not only will this give you something to do while you wait, but it’s also an opportunity for you to demonstrate your serious interest in the position, because you can mention what you’re doing to strengthen your skills in your follow up with the interviewer.
  • Reach out to your network. If someone you knew at the organization had passed your resume along to the hiring manager or endorsed your application, be sure to check in with him or her after the interview. Your contact may be able to provide you with insight about the number of candidates interviewed, how your candidacy was perceived, and other valuable information about the hiring process and the organization culture.
  • Tap your references. Let them know that you’ve interviewed for the position (give them the job title and organization) and that they may be contacted. Make sure they have an updated copy of your resume. Ask them to let you know if they hear from the organization.
  • If this was a first interview, start preparing for a second one. The second interview requires even more preparation than the first one—get busy!
  • Follow up. If the interviewer didn’t mention a timeframe for making a hiring decision — or you didn’t ask — you have a couple of options. The first is to wait a week and then reach out to inquire. How should you follow-up? Unless the interviewer has stated otherwise, a phone call is usually the best method for follow-up. Try to reach the person directly; only leave a voice mail if you can’t reach them after a couple of tries. Don’t forget to check USAJOBS as well to see if the status of the job has changed.

Remember, even if you aren’t selected for the position you were interviewing for, many organizations do keep your application and resume on file, and you might be contacted later about another opening.

The Top 10 Reasons You Were Not Picked for an Interview

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Over and over I hear, “if I could only get an interview, I could get the job…” Yet, far too many times, you’re not called for an interview. What could have happened…you thought you were the perfect fit…and you may have even received an email saying that you were referred to the hiring manager.

Of course, truly knowing the precise reason for not getting interviewed for a specific position is difficult to figure out but here are some of the more common reasons why you were not called for an interview:

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Questions to Ask Your Interviewers

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Interviews are for both the employer and you, as an applicant. A great way to ensure “fit” is to ask questions during an interview.

Never walk into an interview without specific questions for the interviewers. Even if you work in the unit where you’re interviewing, it is important to demonstrate that you have thought about the position and are interested in the interviewers’ needs and wants, not just your own. Typically, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions toward the end of the interview; you want to be prepared!

You should not ask questions about how you will be trained, when you will get promoted, or whether you can work at home; instead, focus on demonstrating that you are interested in the employer’s needs.

You may want to prepare 5-6 questions; you may not get to ask them all (3 is probably plenty) and it is possible that your interviewers will have answered at least a couple during the process. Here are some questions you could ask; you should prioritize what is most important to you.

• What are the next steps in the process?
• What are your goals for the person who fills this job in their first 90 days? First year?
• What did the person who held this job before do well that you would like to see continued?
• Are there major organizational changes in the works that might change how this position functions? (Or if you know of those changes, you can ask how those changes might affect the position)
• What do expect to be the biggest learning curve for the person who fills this job?
• Since this position has been vacant, what topic or issue of this position has taken up the most time?
• What is a typical day like?
• Describe the organization culture.
• What do you most like about working here?
• Is there anything else I can provide that would be helpful to you in making your decision?

Get Professional Endorsements Before you Need Them

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We have talked about the importance of documenting your experience on your resume and through your cover letter. In addition to documenting your experience through achievements and metrics, another way to demonstrate your expertise and effectiveness is through third party endorsements. There are several ways to approach this:

  • Consider featuring a quotation from a recent performance evaluation or award recommendation on your resume. On a USAJOBS resume, you could call it a Supervisory Endorsement and put it in the Additional Information Section of USAJOBS. Be sure to identify where the quote came from (e.g., Recent Performance Evaluation) and identify the source, either by name or title. Here’s an example:

“Branch Chief Smith is keenly versed on all laws, regulations and policies relevant to the program. He is working diligently to transform the operational paradigm from solely security to a frontline/investigative methodology…and to retool training…He is an expert on the science that distinguishes DHS’s program from all others, particularly in the area of guarding against cross contamination.” 2016 Performance Review.

This concept also works on private sector resumes; if you are creating a private sector resume, you may want to feature the quotation in a text box or something similar.

  • Ask your LinkedIn Connections to prepare a Recommendation for you so when prospective employers look at your LinkedIn Profile, they will see your endorsements. Authentic, genuine Recommendations are powerful. Instead of sending out those presumptuous LinkedIn “Can You Endorse Me?” emails, select a handful of people in your network and write Recommendations for them, without asking for one in return. You will be surprised at how many people will reciprocate. You can also ask people if they would be willing to Recommend you and, if so, whether it would be helpful for you to do the first draft to get them started. If they take you up on your offer to do the first draft, make sure you let them know that they should feel free to edit what you have drafted. When drafting for someone, be specific and detailed. The reader should be able to tell exactly who it was written about. Quantify accomplishments (with percentages, numbers, and dollar amounts) as much as possible.
  • Select and prepare your references. References should be professional, not personal. You will want to select 3-5 individuals to be your preferred references. These individuals may be current or former managers or supervisors, co-workers, peers, or team members, current or former customers of the company, vendors or suppliers, and people you have supervised. The best references can talk about your day-to-day job performance — so choose someone who supervised you or someone who worked with you closely. Select someone who knows your work well. You want someone who has seen you in action and can speak to your abilities. It’s better to have someone who can speak to your skills and accomplishments than a “big name” on your list of professional references. If someone seems hesitant to serve as your reference, ask someone else.

Once you’ve decided who you would like to be your references, always contact these individuals and ask their permission to use them as a reference. Call your references directly (don’t just email them). Not all potential references will be able to provide this kind of stellar recommendation. But some of your references may be hesitant to say no to you directly if you ask.

So you can give them a way to let themselves off the hook, without turning you down directly. Instead of asking, “Will you be a reference for me?” Ask them, “Do you feel you know me well enough to serve as a reference for me?” Or ask, “Will you be a great reference for me? (If the answer is anything less than enthusiastic, you can collect their information, but not list them on your reference list. It’s perfectly fine to ask a reference to support you, but then not use them when applying to certain jobs, or not at all.) Verify each reference’s contact information, including the preferred phone numbers (cell, home, work) to list.

Do NOT ask your references to pre-prepare written recommendations for you; most employers do not value these. Instead, let your references know that they may be contacted over the phone or via email. Immediately send a letter or email thanking them for serving as a reference, and provide a current copy of your resume (or let them know you will be sending them a copy of your resume soon, if it is not yet completed).

Once someone has agreed to be a reference for you, prepare a references page that you can provide to a prospective when asked. Do not put a section on your resume that says, “References Available Upon Request.” This is old fashioned and considered self-evident. Instead, you should have a reference page in the same format, font style, and font size of your resume. If you are using USAJOBS, it is not necessary to fill out the reference section unless the job posting requires that you provide references. Your Reference Page will work for both private sector and federal resume searches.

Using third party endorsements is a great way to differentiate you from other applicants. Each of these approaches add value to your job search.

Validating Your Experience—Third Party Endorsements

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We have talked about the importance of documenting your experience on your resume and through your cover letter. In addition to documenting your experience through achievements and metrics, another way to demonstrate your expertise and effectiveness is through third party endorsements. There are several ways to approach this:

  • Consider featuring a quotation from a recent performance evaluation or award recommendation on your resume. On a USAJOBS resume, you could call it a Supervisory Endorsement and put it in the Additional Information Section of USAJOBS. Be sure to identify where the quote came from (e.g., Recent Performance Evaluation) and identify the source, either by name or title. Here’s an example:

“Branch Chief Smith is keenly versed on all laws, regulations and policies relevant to the program. He is working diligently to transform the operational paradigm from solely security to a frontline/investigative methodology…and to retool training…He is an expert on the science that distinguishes DHS’s program from all others, particularly in the area of guarding against cross contamination.” 2016 Performance Review.

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Thank You Notes; They Matter

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You just left the interview. You think it went great. Now what? It is not the time to let up. Everything that you’ve done up to this point is moving you forward in your job search. Keep the momentum going.

Send a Thank You

You can send a thank you via email (quick, but not as personal as a handwritten card). You can mail it (takes a few days, so it doesn’t have the immediacy of an email, but has a bigger impact due to the perceived time and care it took to handwrite a note). Or, you can drop off a handwritten note the next day (a good strategy for big companies when you can hand the envelope to the receptionist). NOTE: If you are applying for a federal job, email is essential. Most federal agency “snail mail” goes to a third party first to ensure that its safe so it may take weeks for a mailed thank you to get to a federal agency; bringing a note to the agency won’t work either as most federal agencies have difficult access requirements.

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