How do I stay in touch without being a pest?

I spoke with Anne the other day.  Two weeks ago, she went through a round of interviews and thought it went really well.  She followed up with a thank you note and hasn’t heard from the company.  She knows they’re in a rush to hire someone and really wants it to be her.  She asked me what to do.

First, exercise patience.  When you’re in the job search, your definition of “a rush” and a company’s definition are two different things.  Unfortunately, when you’re tasked with hiring someone, you don’t get to shirk all other corporate duties to focus completely on the hiring process.  It really just adds more work to your already overloaded plate.  A rush to them might be 45 days (let’s hope they’re not working for the 911!).

Second, and this is something you need to do when you’re in the interview: Ask what the interview process is, the timelines and when they plan to make a decision.  Ask them how firm they will be on those dates.  Then, add 2-4 weeks to those dates (at least) to properly set your expectation.

Third, if you really feel compelled to follow up again, don’t just send a “checking in” email or a “haven’t heard from you and got really worried that you completely forgot about me and how great I am and the perfect person for the position” phone call.  Do this: find an interesting, timely, relevant article about something you discussed in the interview.  Again, make it relevant – and hopefully something they may not have seen.  A few years back, I was waiting to hear from a company about a position.  After the final rounds of interviews (where I was the only candidate left), I called HR a few times and never heard back.  I sent an email to the president along with an interesting article from Fortune Magazine – essentially showcasing some of the challenges and opportunities we had discussed in the interview.  About 60 seconds after I hit send, the president emailed me back and asked to schedule a call with me.

This time when I called HR and left yet another voicemail – letting them know I heard from the president requesting a call, and did they happen to know the details – I heard back from them immediately (it’s almost like they were screening the call – hmmmm, do people actually do that??!!).

So.  Be patient.  Know the process.  Be relevant.  Or better yet, close the deal while you’re still meeting with them face-to-face.