How many times can I follow-up?
You did all the right things and followed all their advice. They promised a response and the air is still dead. What can you do?
Five complaints about hiring authorities and gatekeepers who don’t follow up in a timely manner:
- “The recruiter said she’d get back to me yesterday and I still haven’t heard.”
- “I know I nailed the interview, why haven’t I heard back?”
- “I submitted my resume and I know I qualify. Why didn’t someone call me?”
- “She told me to call her and I did. That was last week and she hasn’t responded.”
- “I really want this job. What is my next move? No one responded to my last three pings.”
The hardest aspect of a job search is you have so little control over other people’s actions and the outcomes. You work very hard to be a good candidate and even have all the right credentials. How on earth can you get the promised feedback?
Mostly, you can’t. The more frequently you ping your company contact, the more annoyed they get. Consider how you feel when you are hiring someone. Do frequent emails or phone calls from candidates change the outcome? Gatekeepers and hiring authorities are generally so focused on hiring the right candidate they often fail at the simple courtesies.
But don’t take any of this personally. Here are but a few reasons you didn’t hear back:
- You are dealing with a recruiter, not the hiring manager. She may not have the mind share and face time required to push this through
- The hiring managers may be otherwise occupied
- This may not be a high priority hire
- They may be trying to arrange schedules to bring you in and have hit rocks
- There is an in-house candidate they are giving first shot
- The recruiter is not a favored nation and other recruiters with other candidates get priority
No matter what the reason, there is little you can do or say beyond your second outreach to spur these folks to action. There is a lot you can do to annoy them and take you off the list. Even if you do get through and they tell you of a genuine reason they didn’t get back to you, it behooves you to pursue all your employment opportunities in parallel. Hearing back will feel good, but it should not affect what you do every day to uncover opportunities.
All this having been said, your experience informs you how to behave when you are once again hiring people. The simple courtesy of an email saying, “We are still working on filling this position and are pleased with your continued interest,” will go a long way.
Career advice, Job Search Tools, Recruiters, Six Figure Jobs
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Career advice, executive jobs, follow up, Recruiters
Themocracy
Rita,
Thanks for writing an article on this topic. It is always a question on the minds of job-finders and there is seldom one standard answer. It’s much like leadership – how you react is typically dependent on the situation. I do whole-heartedly agree that a job-finder should continue to pursue opportunities even if an offer is imminent. You never know when the situation at the subject company might change – economics, organizational structure, project focus, etc. can change at any time.
Hello Rita,
Many thanks for touching base with jobfinders and employers with this article. I am always reminding people in my networking workshops at Experience Unlimited to remember the last time they were hiring and how far down the list that action can be. I feel employers are not overly concerned with getting back to people if they are posting a job online, as they know they will have many to choose from. Susan Walls is absolutely correct, it is much like leadership – how you react is typically dependent on the situation. It is polite and proper for an employer to at least send that email of consideration, however, if the staff is small and a senior executive is handling his or her own hiring, the email may never come. Many jobfinders get discouraged when they need to think of a lack of response as a blessing. They are getting that much closer to a landing that job. If their pipeline is full of companies they have applied for, they do not have time for the concern.