Essential Interviews Tips and Skills To Get You Started!
Essential Interviews Tips and Skills To Get You Started!
Home / Interviews Tips / Waiting for the Result
You may be desperately keen to get a particular job, but remember that unless there is more than one vacancy to fill, there is going to be only one successful candidate and several disappointed runners-up. During the waiting period, therefore, keep your job search going. You can always withdraw other applications later on if necessary. In the meantime, keep a positive attitude and avoid making the mistake of telling yourself getting this job is a do-or-die situation. You will only leave yourself wide open to crushing disappointment if someone else is appointed.
Should I Make the First Approach?
This is a very debatable point. The greatest danger lies in being tempted to write an enthusiastic letter the day after the interview. The idea behind this seems to be to impress your recruiters, emphasising how much you would like to be considered for the job and your willingness to be available immediately.
Be warned that with some recruiters this sort of approach will go down like a brick. So avoid it. It is far better to leave your interviewers to make up their own minds than damage your chances by being labelled a creep.
The time to begin thinking about contacting your potential employers is once the deadline for hearing the result has passed. You are then perfectly within your rights to make a tentative enquiry to find out whether the decision will be made shortly.You may have been told to expect a delay of a week or so before hearing the result: but if you have not heard within two or three days after your interview, this usually means that someone else has been offered the post.
All is not lost, however. There is always some delay between the successful candidate being offered the job and he or she accepting it. Until an employer has received this acceptance in writing, the remaining candidates have to be kept waiting. The reason is that the successful candidate does not always take up the offer, in which case the next best candidate will be approached.
How Should I Make the Approach?
Once you have decided you want to know one way or the other, contacting the organisation by phone is obviously the quickest way of being put out of your misery. It does have its drawbacks, however.
1. Can I cope with receiving bad news over the phone?
There is something chillingly clinical about a ten second conversation which is the mental equivalent of having a bucket of ice-cold water thrown over you.
2. Am I ready to be put on the spot?
You may have phoned just at the right time—the letter is being drafted at that very moment offering you the job. Consequently, you may be expected to give an immediate response, or be faced with the complexities of negotiating some aspect of the offer which you might not be ready for.
