Post-Interview Follow-Up
What you do after the interview may help you land the job.
by Shane Christopher
My wife loves to ridicule me for starting projects and not finishing them. After buying a house a few years ago, we decided that the family room was too small and the formal living room unnecessary. So I removed the wall between the two, creating one very large great room. Since my dad was lucky to 
know the difference between a screwdriver and a pile driver (forgive my embellishment for effect, Dad), and since you normally learn these trades from your father, it took me a long time to finish. I removed the wall, re-routed electrical outlets, repaired the carpet and patched the drywall ceiling. I did 99 percent of the work, but for some reason left the patched ceiling unpainted. For the record, that was nearly a year ago. Mrs. Christopher hasn’t let me forget it.
Your job interview is the culmination of a lot of work. You’ve prepared and polished your resume, gone through TAP or ACAP, read your back issues of G.I. Jobs, passed the online screening questions and finished the in-person interview. There’s a natural tendency to feel as if you’ve finished. But you haven’t. And those who realize there’s still one percent of the job to do are more likely to taste job offer success. Within two days after an interview, you should follow up with the interviewer, offering thanks for his or her time.
The purpose?
• Summarize the main reasons they should hire you.
• Show that you know general business etiquette.
• Reinforce your desire to work for them.
• Answer any open questions that came out of the interview.
Format
Follow-up letters can be email or snail mail (handwritten or typed). Email is the most informal but also becoming the most prevalent. And that’s generally acceptable, especially if your interviewer seems to prefer email to other forms of communication. But still, consider a handwritten note. Since they’re so rare these days, they set you apart from others vying for the job. They may also indicate a stronger-than-average desire for the job since it takes more time to write it out. Sending both is also acceptable.
You’ve sent the follow-up but haven’t heard from anyone. What to do?
Hopefully, the interviewer described next steps to you. If a day or two beyond when you expected to hear back has passed, politely call the interviewer, reaffirming your interest in the position and asking when you may expect to hear something. You want to show interest without sounding desperate. It’s a matter of displaying some class. Keep in mind, too, that most companies balance many variables when hiring. So well-intended quick decisions sometimes fail. Now finish the job. Paint the ceiling!