5 Steps for Being Positive and Productive Post-Interview
So, you’ve gone through the preparation and the actual interview itself. Now what? You can wait and let your jitters get the best of you or you can follow these 5 steps for a more positive and productive period of time after your interview before you hear back from the company on whether or not you got the job.
1. Send Thank You Letters: If you’ve gotten the contact information for everyone who took part in interviewing you (and you should have), now is the perfect time to send out your thank you letters! Thank each individual for the time they took to interview you, reiterate your interest in the position, and make a positive final impression in their minds. Once you’ve done this, you’ll know that you have done everything in your power to get the job, it’s now up to them to decide.
2. Revise Your Resume: If there were any points of confusion or areas on your resume that the hiring manager needed you to elaborate on, now is a perfect time to go in and revise your resume. Fix those minor errors or omissions while they’re fresh in your mind and you’ll have a more precise, polished resume in case you need to continue applying for other jobs or for use in the distant future.
3. Make a Pro’s and Con’s List: Now that you have more information about the position, it’s a great time to make a pro’s and con’s list! This will help reaffirm your interest in the position and make sure it’s the right fit for you before you officially accept, should they offer the job to you.
4. Immerse Yourself in New Knowledge: Maybe there was a programming language or technology they mentioned would be used in this position that you have no experience with or maybe they mentioned the technologies they’d be moving towards in the future and you want to sharpen your skills. Whatever the case, you can use this waiting period as a productive opportunity to immerse yourself in new technical knowledge and get a head start on the learning process. Even if you don’t land the job this knowledge is sure to come in handy in the future.
5. Turn Off Extraneous Notifications: When you’re waiting for important news about whether or not you’ve gotten the job and your phone buzzes, you get that little ping of excited and nervous feelings. And, often times, it’s just one of your apps notifying you of something mundane. To save yourself the stress and help you resist checking your phone too many times a day, try turning off extraneous notifications for the time being. That way, when your phone buzzes, it’s more likely to be the important news you’re waiting for and not a flood of less-than-exciting information.
Don’t just twiddle your thumbs and wait nervously by the phone for news from your potential future employer, use these 5 steps to make this post-interview time more positive and productive. That way, you’ll be helpfully distracted and prepared for any scenario. Whether they offer you the job or not, you’ll have handled the situation positively and gotten a lot done along the way.