You’ve survived the job interview, you’ve sent the thank you card, and you’re anxiously waiting for a response from the employer. You really, really want this job, and you find that you can’t really concentrate on your daily routine, because all you can think about is whether you’re going to get the job offer.
For the first 48 hours after the interview, every time your phone dings, you whip it out and see if it’s the email you’ve been waiting for. It isn’t, but you tell yourself to be patient. Later, you’re in the shower, and you think you just heard another ding from your phone in the next room. You start to wonder if it’s the life-changing job offer you’re dying to receive – or is it the rejection email? And then you consider whether you can actually hear your phone from your shower in the first place – did you just imagine it? Should you actually quickly jump out just to check your phone?
After 4 days, you’ve heard nothing. You could’ve sworn they told you in the interview that they’d get back to you shortly with a yay or nay. But how quickly is quickly? Does a non-response mean a rejection? Or maybe they’re still deciding? Should you contact them, or is that too aggressive and may turn them off?
After a week, this waiting game is driving you insane. You just want an answer. Let it be a rejection, but for the sake of all that is good in this world, give me a response! You’re tearing your hear out – is there anything you can do?
The waiting period between a job interview and the official employer response is both common and excruciating. Unfortunately, the HR departments of some companies don’t have their act together, and it may be weeks until you hear anything from them. I’ve once seen someone get a job offer after six weeks of radio silence from the employer!
If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of a lengthy waiting period, there is a job hack that can:
- get the employer to respond to you more quickly, and
- actually increase your odds of landing the job!
This job hack is to simply send an email to the employer asking to know when they’ll respond to you. I recommend sending this email once per week from the day you had your interview. That is, if you interviewed on a Thursday, send this email the following Thursday, and then another one the Thursday after that if you hadn’t received a response from the first email. Keep doing this until you get a response!
Here’s a sample template for this email. Of course, modify as needed, and fill in the WORDS IN ALL CAPS with the appropriate words for your situation.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of the company’s secret sauce, refer to this article in which I explain this fundamental job hacking concept.
The reason that sending this email is so effective, is because it signals that you are eager and excited to work at the organization. And as we’ve stated in previous blog posts – the more the organization believes that you’re excited to work there, the more excited they will be to hire you. (Imagine that you’re hiring a babysitter – wouldn’t you rather hire one that is excited about your kids than one who just wants money?)
Sending this email is not too pushy – in fact, the employer will view it positively. I’ve personally spoken to employers who have told me that they’ve made hiring decisions based on how persistent candidates are during the waiting period. That is, they decided to hire the most persistent ones, because of the excitement factor that we explained in the previous paragraph. As long as you don’t send an email more than once per week, you’ll be just fine.
So don’t just sit on your hands and wait – you owe it to yourself to take the reins on your job search!