Ok, so you had a job interview. You thought it went pretty well.
The hiring manager said he would make a decision in the next week but it has been two weeks and you haven’t heard anything. You called the recruiter every day since the interview but still no response. What is going on?
Can a job seeker follow-up too much? When does follow up turn into stalking?
Let’s look at some definitions according to Google Search:
Follow-up: a continuation or repetition of something that has already been started
Stalking: repeated following and harassing or another person
It looks like stalking is following up so often or so frequently that it becomes harassment.
In a job search, you want to follow-up but not harass. But, when hiring managers don’t call you back and you become increasingly more concerned, your overtures to continue a conversation become more frantic. You’ve slipped into stalking territory.
I bet the difference between follow-up and stalking is clearer to the person being followed. I remember how annoyed I felt when a candidate called me regularly. I would respond in an exasperated voice, “I promise I will call you when I have news.” If the calls continued, I put a little red mark next to that person’s name – not good.
We reward persistence but not annoyance. The difference between follow-up and stalking can be very confusing for the job seeker.
Let’s make our own rule:
Don’t be annoying. Don’t let your interest appear desperate.
Here are some guidelines for using our new rule:
- Don’t call more than twice a week following up on a resume you sent or after an interview. If they are interested they will definitely call you back.
- If they don’t call you back after two weeks, assume it means they are either not interested or have so much going on they can’t get back to you. Create a reminder in your calendar to leave a message every week or two so they don’t forget about you.
- Move on to something else. Having many opportunities to work on will make you feel less desperate about one individual opportunity.
Remind yourself every day that you bring value to any organization but you want the right organization to hire you. Don’t be annoying. Be confident! Go out and find the right organization for you.