So you’re just walking out of a job interview that you’ve spent days preparing for. You may be walking out feeling great because it went well, or maybe you’re not feeling that confident. But, nonetheless, you gave it your best. You showcased your skills and abilities, let your personality shine and showed great interest in the job and the company. You’ve done your part to the best of your abilities. Now comes the time when you have to wait for an answer.

The trouble is, you can’t just sit there idle, waiting for an answer. Your curiosity will drive you mad! But what do you do? Should you call back and inquire? Should you drop an email just to say you appreciate their time to meet with you? Or should you connect with them on LinkedIn to show that irrespective of their decision you still want to stay in touch? Then you wonder – by doing any of these actions will you annoy the interviewer? Would they take it as unnecessary pressure to respond to you? Will reaching out adversely impact your chances of being selected?

It’s mind boggling, to say the least! And the wait can seriously cause you much anxiety. We all face it and yet we’re always perplexed on what the right thing to do is. So let me try and put all that anxiety to rest and offer you these five actions you should be taking after a job interview.

1. Be Proactive

Being passive is the fastest to have your interviewer lose interest in you. If you’re not going to show them you’re serious and eager for the position, then honestly, someone else will step up and take that job from you. You have to be proactive. Before you leave make sure to find out from the interviewer when you can expect to hear back from them and what the next steps are. You could even ask if they’ll be comfortable with you contacting them. Another action to take is to drop a thank you note to the interviewer. Try not to appear desperate. A simple courteous note thanking them for their time, appreciating the conversation you had, expressing your interest in the role and how you’re looking forward to hearing from them should suffice.

2. Be Interesting

To set yourself apart from all the other candidates, be different and be interesting. Why engage in the typical practices when you can really make an impact with your interviewer. How do you do this? You could start with sharing an interesting article on a topic that you discussed with them during the interview. This shows how informed you are and how you’re trying to ‘really’ connect with them. You could even introduce them to someone on your network that you feel the interviewer would be interested in meeting. It’s these subtle yet differing actions that’ll make you appear all the more interesting to your potential employer.

3. Reconnect

There are times when the interviewer doesn’t get back to you on the date they mentioned. Rather than hanging around waiting, drop them an email to reconnect. When doing this, avoid sounding irritated by their lack of commitment. Instead, let them know that you were given the impression that you’ll be informed by them on a particular date and that you haven’t heard back yet. Remember to be courteous and also update them on any change in your personal circumstances (such as any travel plans or other important engagements). It’s important that you reconnect to show that you’re still interested in the role. Also, it portrays a positive and professional image of you.

4. Take it Up

Recruitment managers often tend to have their hands full. If it’s not daily operations that’s keeping them busy, it’s scheduling interviews and meeting over a dozen people each day. Hence, there’s a good chance that they’ve forgotten to inform you about their decision. It’s understandable so don’t lose your cool! Instead, take the matter up with someone more senior. The key here is to not let the recruitment manager feel overlooked or bypassed. That’s not your objective here. Try approaching them in a way that’s respectful and helps you build a relationship with them. That way, even if they decide not to hire you at present you’ll keep the doors open for any future opportunities.

5. Move On

If you haven’t heard back yet there’s a good chance they’ve decided against hiring you. When all else fails, you’ve given it your best and you’ve tried all of the above actions – don’t lose hope, don’t let it get to you and don’t linger on. Just move on. Your career will face many highs and lows and similarly there’ll be several rejections and plenty more successes. Take this as a learning and extract all the positives you can from this experience. Divert your attention to the next opportunity and channel your energy on companies that’ll value you.

Is there something you do after a job interview that’s helped you? Do share so we can all learn from your experience.

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