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The following Dear Career Coach feature from
The Five O'Clock Club includes some very helpful advice for anyone currently
in the midst of a job search.
Q Dear Career Coach
I interviewed with a company six weeks ago; I sent thank you letters to
everyone; they asked for my references and I gave them to the hiring manager.
Today I spoke with the hiring manager who said: "We are through with the
reference checking, everything is fine, we are still very favorable about
you... We've done some rethinking and have seen more people... we'll see
a candidate on the 20th... after that we'll be ready to make a decision...
I'll definitely call you that week (the 20th)."
More info on the job: it will involve my relocating.
Please, what else can I do to sway things my way? Should I send another
letter? What should I say in it?
I appreciate your help very much.
A From Nancy Friedberg, The Five O'Clock Club
That's an excellent strategy question. The details of your meetings are
not clear, so I'm reading between the lines about what the hiring manager
said. The message seems to be "we're not 100% convinced you are the one
we want to hire." Otherwise, they would have made you an offer. Having
said that, you need to understand a few things about the interview process
and the timing involved.
- We tell Five O'Clock Club members that when they're
at the beginning of an organization's hiring process, time can work
against them. In your situation, the hiring manager said, "we've done
some rethinking." This may mean one of three things:
1. After the hiring manager met with you, he or she met with other candidates.
The meetings with these candidates brought up new issues that made the
hiring manager think differently about you or the position.
2. Some internal changes took place, which caused them to re-evaluate
their strategy.
3. There may be a potential concern about you that they haven't told
you about.
- At The Five O'Clock Club we don't write thank you
notes because job hunters really need to say more than "thank you."
Instead, we analyze the needs of the company and compose an influence
letter.
In your case, six weeks have gone by and you lack
information about the current situation. You need to find out how their
needs or views have changed. Call on contacts who can provide you with the
best information. Do you have people in your network who can help you? Did
you create a good rapport with the HR manager, if there is one? Or perhaps
you became friendly with a secretary there. One or all of these individuals
can be an excellent source of information if they have a pulse on what's
happening (the inside scoop).
Here's a recent example that's similar to your situation. One Five O'Clock
Clubber was in discussions with a company for three months. Many of her
decisions about how she should follow up with the various players came from
the feedback she solicited from the HR manager -- who definitely was backing
her. She made sure to connect with the HR manager every step along the way.
She finally got an offer last week.
- Obviously, you can try to call the hiring manager
to get information, but your calls may not necessarily be as effective
as trying to call someone else. Try to figure out who has influence
with the hiring manager -- who can influence the hiring manager's thinking.
Then use your contacts to gather good information on the company's needs,
and work on influencing the influencer.
- Finally, we recommend that our members ask a very
important strategic question on every interview. If you haven't already
done so, you should ask it at this point. The question is: Do you
have any objections or concerns about hiring someone like me?
If they do have a few objections (such as the fact that you will
have to relocate), identify their concerns and address them as part
of your follow-up strategy.
- If you are actively speaking with only one employer,
you will lose your edge. Of course, you know it's not smart to put all
your eggs in one basket. That's why we recommend having six to ten things
in the works at all times. Five will fall away though no fault of your
own.
So, if you are in discussion with other organizations,
recontact all of them now and apply the strategies I mentioned above to
try to turn those interviews into offers. That way, by the week of the
20th you can let the first organization know that you have other offers.
Ask when they think they will be making their decision.
It may be more effective to call someone who can influence the hiring
manager rather than calling the hiring manager directly. On the other
hand, if you already have another offer right now, you can call them this
week and gently apply some pressure saying something like, "I know you
are seeing another candidate on the 20th and planning to come to a decision
in the next couple of weeks. I am following up to let you know where I
am in my process. I have an offer from another company and they are pressuring
me for a decision. However, you are my number-one choice. I've been trying
to put them off but it's getting difficult. Certainly I can respect that
you need to finish things up on your end. I was just wondering when you
think you'll have an answer."
The bottom line: if they are truly interested in you, this will
make them concerned about losing you and they might speed things up. If
they are lukewarm about you -- which is also good for you to know -- they
won't act concerned.
If this is the case and you've done everything you can think of, then
you might want to back off and aggressively get on with your search so
you don't sit around waiting for the phone to ring -- which would only
get you down and make you lose momentum. Good Luck!
To submit your career questions via the Five
O'Clock member's only section visit FiveOClockClub.com.
This article is courtesy of The Five O'Clock Club. Copyright, The Five
O'Clock Club. All rights reserved.
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