Following Up On a Job Application

It has been almost a week since you submitted your resume, but you haven’t heard back yet from the company. What should you do? Should you be following up on a job application?

In today’s job market, with literally hundreds of people applying for the same job, you have to set yourself apart from the pack – and here’s how!

You have to have a follow-up plan – a sequence of events you will do after sending in a resume. A sample follow-up plan looks like this.

A few days after sending or submitting your resume, call the Human Resources department, or whoever is their hiring point of contact, and asked if they received your resume. While it is nice to know they have, that isn’t why you are really calling. The real reason is to build some friendly rapport and to get your name in front of them.

As part of your conversation, ask when they will be conducting their initial interviews. Then ask if you can follow-up again with them as the interview date approaches.

Allow about one third of the time to lapse between when you called and the interview date. This time, send the person a short email, re-emphasizing your desire for the position. Reference your resume and how your skills could fill their need.

Let another one third of the time to lapse and follow-up this time with another phone call. Talk again about how you are still interested in the job. Towards the end of the call, ASK FOR THE INTERVIEW. This is a step most people miss.

If you think this sounds like a sales process, you are right – because it is! You are a product and you are selling yourself, so you have to use salesmanship techniques and one is asking for the sale, or in this case, the interview.

If you have sales experience, it is common knowledge you have to put your product or service in front of a prospective buyer five to seven times before s/he buys. While we won’t go to that extreme, because there is a fine line between promoting yourself and becoming a pest, we do want to follow-up again with a phone call about a week before the interview date.

If you received an interview offer from the last follow-up contact, talk briefly about how you are looking forward to the interview. If you last contact did not produce an interview offer, ask again.

The person who follows up three times after submitting a resume dramatically increases his/her chances for an interview. By submitting your initial resume, and either making a couple of phone calls and sending out an email, or visa-versa, you are frequently keeping your name in front of person who will ultimately (you hope) be interviewing you.

The vast majority of job seekers do not follow up. They send in their resume and then sit back and wait for the call . . . and wait . . . and wait. Take action and make things happen! Ask for the interview. If you are one of the few who courteously and enthusiastically follows up, you are already ahead of the pack and you have increased your chances at getting an interview.

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