Had a Great Interview but Have Got No Response to My Thank-You Emails

 

Contacting Employers After Job Interviews: What You Need To Know

Despite all the well-intended advice out there about following up after an interview - some telling you that being aggressive shows your interest, calling the prospective employer and asking how things stand is rarely appreciated. Especially if you are trying to make, them follow YOUR schedule.

Employers pretty much assume you are genuinely interested in their company. After all, it pays real money. Most people are not sitting there wondering, "Oh dear me, did she or he like us?" Of course, if your profile matches theirs, they want to know you are interested.
 

Enter Our Friend The Thank You Notes

You should send a thank-you letter, card, or email within a day or two of the interview. In this section, you thank them for the interview and let them know that you are very interested, that is, if you are.

It is unlikely that a thank you note alone will get you the job (although there are exceptions). It will not change their minds if they have already decided you are not the right fit. Nevertheless, it is a nice way to leave a lasting impression and reinforces the HR person's idea that you want their job offer.

If you sent the note and have been waiting a whole week, please know that there is no reason to get in touch so soon unless something has changed or you promised to get back to them.
 

How Long Does It Take To Get A Reply After An Interview?

It can take anywhere between a few hours and several weeks. To job seekers, a week can seem like an eternity. Nevertheless, that is not that long from an employer's perspective. They may even be finishing interviews or determining their next steps. (Think dog years versus people years.)

Key players' unexpected projects, vacations, or sick days occasionally keep us from completing our tasks. Some decisions in the hiring process take a while to be made when all of the people involved are gathered together.

It is not uncommon to wait a few weeks to hear back. It will not help you to keep calling if they do not remember you. They have not forgotten about you if they like you. Calling too frequently might make you appear needy or high maintenance. Even if it feels that way, the last thing you want is to imply that they are not doing something correctly — especially because it may feel that way!
 

How Long Does It Take To Get A Response From A Job Application?

The timetable varies based on various factors that have little to do with you. Expect a response within ten days, but do not assume that you will not get a second interview if you do not hear anything for several weeks. In this case, you should take matters into your own hands.
 

When Should You Follow-Up After Submitting Your Resume?

If you have not been contacted after ten business days, a short, courteous email updating them on your status and asking if any further information you can provide would be acceptable for most tasks. If this is a position where you know they need to hire someone right away or maybe a sales job where they might appreciate your more energetic approach, perhaps a week would be sufficient.

Alternatively, if something changes in your schedule or you are offered another position, do not hesitate to contact the individual with whom you had the greatest rapport and notify them.
 

Why Your Follow-Up Call (Or Email) Is Not Getting Any Response After An Interview?

So what is going on? Here are some good (and not-so-good) reasons why you might not have heard anything after your job interview:

(1) Human resources policy – Human resources policies at some companies prohibit employees from responding to job interview candidate inquiries for legal reasons. So you are not the only one being ignored. The contact is likely noted. There is just no response.

(2) Lack of consideration – Even when companies know people are waiting, they do not notify anyone except those they are most interested in. Even they do not hear from the company until it is ready. This may not be an official policy, but it is accepted practice.

(3) Stalling for time – Sometimes, you are still unsure which way you want to go, so you do not respond to anyone until you are sure. There are times when you wait to see if any new resumes will enter the pool of candidates. This can happen even if they already have a favorite candidate.

(4) No one authorized to respond officially – Some places are not set up for interviews, so they do not know what to do when people call or contact them. They wait until their next steps are set up, taking time.

(5) Not sure what to say – When someone calls, you are unsure what to tell them or do not want to start a conversation that could be awkward before the next steps are clear.

(6) Still interviewing people – Due to scheduling reasons or the fact that new resumes are still coming in, interviewing can continue beyond the week you were interviewed. You are still a top candidate, though. They just may be looking for that "perfect" match.

(7) Waiting for key players to be available – To schedule the next round of interviews, everyone involved in the hiring process must be consulted. When more than one person is involved, this can be tricky.

(8) You have written too often – You may have heard back once and received a polite response. Then you took it as an invitation to keep bugging them. They get annoyed. Do not keep writing or calling if you have not asked to check in again in another week or two.

(9) You are sitting in spam – Unless they have you in their address book, your email may get sent to spam since they do not know who you are. You should include something in the subject line to identify the position you are writing about. "Hi" is an inappropriate subject line for this purpose.

(10) Lack of awareness – They could be perfectly nice people who are just unaware of the procedure. Unbelievable, right? I was like that when I first started my career. Particularly in smaller companies and those without formal human resources processes, it can be a challenge to hire.

(11) What you said or wrote bugged them – Your tone or whatever you said may have been annoying to them if they saw your email or heard your voicemail. Do not sound like you tell them they should have contacted you sooner. Keep it polite and short. Inform them that you are still very interested and ask if there is anything else you can provide to assist with their hiring decision.

(12) They are just plain swamped! – Many people have hundreds of old and new messages in their inboxes. During the job search, this number can go up by another 50 or 100 because of internal emails from the hiring team and human resources and everyone else thinking they deserve a personal response to their questions.
 

Is Lack Of Response A Sign They Would Be A Bad Place To Work?

No, not necessarily. Online articles warn you that any company that does not respond to you within a reasonable timeframe is probably not worth working for. While it may be tempting to jump to that conclusion, you could end up missing out on an exciting opportunity. Why is that?

I can tell you from lots of experience that the people handling the interview are not always the same people you would work for. Many companies, even good ones, get the hiring process wrong, even if they are good. I worked in great companies with terrible interview policies.

While a smooth hiring process can be a good sign, this is one of those times when you should not assume anything. If you are worried about working for the company, pay attention to anyone you will be working with directly during the interview process.

Do your homework as well. Make use of search engines, LinkedIn, places like Glassdoor.com (employee reviews), and even interviewer answers to your questions to get a sense of what they are like.

Ask anyone you know who works there - or someone you know who knows someone. NOTE: Be careful about contacting people you do not know to get the scoop within the company. Things get passed on and, unless done well, may not always benefit you.
 

Do You Know What To Do If You Do Not Hear Back About Your Interview?

The most important thing is not to bother them any longer! Being overly eager can quickly turn into being annoying. You can now only let them do what they need to do if you have attempted to contact them via email or phone without hearing back. You have not been forgotten if you are a top contender since finding the right candidate is not easy. The chances of turning things around are very slim if you do not have a follow-up email.

It is okay to give it another shot if you think there is something new to add since your thank you an email (hopefully, you sent one). Reach out to the person you connected with most. You could also try politely approaching the head of the department you would like to work for. Maybe this time, use snail mail to ensure that your emails or voicemails will not be eaten by hungry electronic spam detectors or delete buttons.

In a crowded inbox, messages can easily be lost during attempts to free up space. At times, all you can do is wait. And keep your sanity. Meanwhile, keep looking for a job.

 

Question:

I am a third-year litigator, and it has been one week since I interviewed with a law firm. I think everything went very well; even the hiring manager told me how qualified I am. However, when I sent thank-you emails, nobody responded. It has been a week, and I am assuming the worst. My husband tells me I am being a pessimist. What is your thought?
 

Answer:

It is understandable to assume the worst in this situation, but what you are experiencing is not unusual at all right now. I have seen people in your exact situation get offers, so you should not assume the worst. Of course, it would have been nice if the hiring managers responded to your thank you notes. But very often, they do not. Why? They want to be very careful not to say something (even if said casually) that could send the wrong signal.

There are many ways to incorrectly interpret an otherwise innocent remark made by an attorney when they respond to a thank you note. For example, if somebody responds with, ''Nice meeting you, too - best of luck!'' you might assume the worst (''Uh oh, if they were interested in seeing me again, they would not have said 'best of luck,' which is something you say to somebody you do not expect to see again. Damn!''). On the other hand, if somebody responded politely with, ''Nice meeting you, too - I hope to see you again soon!'' you might throw your hands up in victory on the premature assumption that ''I hope to see you again'' must surely (and literally) mean ''I hope we hire you and I hope to see you in our firm.'' (I am only half-joking ... I have heard this rationale many times from distressed job candidates.)

As you can see, as a candidate in an understandably heightened state of anxiety, it is very easy to jump to conclusions that are not accurate quickly. The attorneys at the interviewing firm often know this, so rather than risk being the one person who sends the incorrect message and getting in trouble later on for speaking out of turn- attorneys often play it safe and do not respond. The rules of social pressure encourage people at the interviewing, firm-especially those that are not critical to the final decision-making process-to sit tight and not respond.

I have seen many people not get responses at all and subsequently receive offers, and I have also seen people get very nice and encouraging responses and end up not receiving an offer. All things being equal, a response is a better sign than no response at all, but do not assume the worst just yet. Hang in there.