Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Shall I send an e-mail after the interview asking for some feedback?

The Recruiter working schedule is normally busy with many interviews, reports, meetings, and other tasks. Shortly after he interviews you, he might not have time to reply to your e-mails asking for feedback.


Some candidates like to send a new e-mail to the Recruiter every two or three days emphasizing how good they are for the job, how much they need it, and asking for some news. It´s normal that the person wants to know his interview result, but patience is the main key here.


Too many e-mails from the same candidate asking for the interview result can give a bad image about you. It can sound desperate and impatient. Imagine if all the interviewed candidates decide to send a single e-mail to the Recruiter to wonder about the result. The Recruiter won´t do any other thing during his working hours but reply to those e-mails!


Luckily, every time more and more companies work with internal candidate tracking systems, which already sends an automatic e-mail to the candidate once the recruitment process is over. If you were the candidate, you would receive at least a typical feedback like “Thanks for your time, but we decided to choose another person”.


Those e-mails can seem a bit a cold, like “copy and paste” (and they are template messages), but at least there was a reply sent to you. At least you won´t be waiting for weeks or months without knowing what happened with that interview. I know we all want to hear that we got the job. Although when we talk about job interview results, a “no” is better than an eternal silence.


I try to be very careful with the candidate´s feedback, because I consider everybody deserves a reply. It can be painful and frustrating not knowing what happened after your interview, if you are still on the process and it is just taking longer than you thought, or if there is somebody else already there working on that position.


Apart from that, if you are in an active job search, you might receive another offer while you are still waiting for that reply, and you don´t know what to do. So, for me, even a “Thanks, but no, thanks” feedback is better than ignore the candidate forever after the interview.


Some candidates would like to receive a personalized feedback from the Recruiter, with the details about the reason why there were not select. There are people that send e-mails or call me after the process is over to ask for the specifics about why we choose another candidate.


The person can justify it saying “I want to learn from this situation to improve myself for future opportunities”, or he can just say he is curious about it, and both options are fine. The problem is that most of the time, we, Recruiters, can´t give you much information about it.


Sometimes, due to confidentially aspects and commitments we made with the company, even if we wanted, we would not be able to share more details.


There are times that the reason why the other person got the job offer and not you is very objective and clear. For example, the other candidate has three more years of experience than you, or he can speak an additional language that you can´t. Other times, it´s a mix of many things that we need to consider when making the final decision about who will get the job offer.


If the Recruiter´s answer for you is a “Yes, we would like to make you a job offer”, you will know it. Believe me, we will find you in 99% of the cases (sending an e-mail, calling you, leaving a text or voice message on your mobile phone, writing you a private message on LinkedIn, etc). If you do not receive any answer or feedback at all about the interview…. then, better start planning your next step in a different direction.


There is nothing wrong if you decide to send an e-mail to the Recruiter after the interview, thank him for his time and ask for your interview result. Some Recruiter´s strongly recommend a follow up e-mail as a way of showing that you are interested in the position. Just consider that any recruitment process takes some time, and that by sending one e-mail per day, every single day, to the Recruiter, won´t help to make things faster. 


If you decide to do it, do it once and please wait at least one week before you send it. By doing so, you give sometime to the process; respect the Recruiter´s agenda and at the same time, show that you are still interested in the job. Then maybe, you will get your reply.


Do your best and go ahead!


As you know, English is not my native language. I use it because I can reach more people and share my experience with you. Feel free to visit my blog at julianarabbi.blogspot.com and find more articles and videos.


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