After going through a phone interview, a follow-up email is a very crucial part in finding out whether the employing party is interested in hiring you or not. It is a tense situation of wondering whether you aced it, where a follow-up is a much-needed step.
Phone interviews are usually conducted by a recruiting company to make things a little quicker in the hiring process, although, of course, a copy of your resume has to be forwarded to them beforehand. Upon seeing your resume and contact details, the one who is in charge of the hiring in the HR department, or someone else delegated to do the hiring, will get in touch with you. When you get that much-anticipated phone call, it is up to you to make sure that you are ready and collected. Once you mount that barrier and make it to the other side, it is then entirely up to the company to decide whether you’re the right person for the position or not. A follow-up email should ideally be sent a week after the phone call, in case you haven’t heard from the company by then.
Writing the email in a way that doesn’t come off as desperate or too forceful is the key. First, ask yourself if you were able to pull off the phone interview, where you hung up feeling confident and assured. That way, you can tell yourself that you don’t have anything to worry about. Here are some pointers to keep in mind while writing that email.
- Don’t project the desperation of your situation in the email. Also, don’t make it sound like you have options and that other companies are willing to use you as their prime asset. Some people tend to act a little too defensive, and point out how they did the interview so well, that they’re confused about how the hirer could be so blind to that fact. Being such a hard-minded person won’t work in your favor.
- Respect the process and understand how these things tend to take time, and make it apparent in how you write, by being understanding in why they couldn’t get back (be discreet about it though).
- Make it clear how you could really be invaluable to the company, by reminding them of the interview day and date, and resending a copy of your resume to refresh their memory.
- Resumes need to be attention grabbing, so I’m guessing that whatever drew them to call you in the first place, just shows that you did send them a pretty neat resume.
- Use a salutation in the right manner, and communicate your point across effectively, without dodging the main reason you’re emailing. You don’t have to retell the hirer about your entire list of credentials (they’ll have the resume copy to see that).
- Before sending the email, proofread it to cancel out any mistakes that could jeopardize your chances of getting the job.
Sample
Keeping the above pointers in mind, we now move on to find out how to word out and arrange your content before sending it off to the company.
| Email Address Box: (Type in email of the company hirer, followed by your email address to make sure that it has been sent) Subject Box: (Type in your name followed by “follow-up on “date (example= 14th March 2011’s” phone interview for the post of “mention designation”) Dear Madam/Sir (better to type in their name if you know the spelling. Start female names with ‘Madam’, and male names with ‘Mister’) I am writing in regard to our last conversation, which was the phone interview conducted on the (mention date of phone interview), about my potentiality in joining the organization. I had mentioned in that interview why I would prove to be an idyllic choice for the company, and upon giving you a background of my experience and qualifications, you said you were impressed and would think over the possibility of handing me the job. Just to give you a little reminder on who I was and what my credentials were when I first emailed you before the interview, I have attached my resume stating all my details. It would be much appreciated if you were to get back to me, since I am looking forward to being a part of the team, and doing all I can to prove that I am deserving. Yours sincerely, |
After you send the follow-up email, the waiting process recommences, but this time, you know that if they don’t get back to you, then your chances could be slim. Some companies get back to applicants even if they didn’t make it to the post, while others don’t. Either way, keep your fingers crossed, and hope for the best.