After a job interview, don’t stop the job search campaign. Interview follow-up is a critical step you can’t afford to overlook if you want to land an offer.
The interviewer has finished asking their questions, you’ve had a chance to ask the interviewers some questions, and now you are shaking hands and are walking out the door of the interview room. Now the interview process is over, and you have to wait.
No!
The interview process should not end when you walk out the door, and you should strive to ensure it doesn’t. There are a few things you should do to follow up after your education interview, and there could be information the school representatives will want from you to assist them in deciding who they should hire.
When the discussion is over, it is beneficial to ask the school principal the next step in the hiring process. For instance, will there be another round of interviews, a demo lesson plan, and when will they let you know when they’ve made a decision?
It’s essential to find out what your next contact with the school will be. Otherwise, the interview will be left up in the air, and you will be confused as to which follow-up steps you should take.
Determine who will be calling to arrange another meeting or to inform you of the decision. Sometimes the school will phone the candidates to let them know of their choice. Other times the school will leave it up to the candidates to phone and find out.
To keep yourself fresh in the school principal’s mind after your job interview, it is a great idea to send a thank you letter. Not only is it polite to thank your interviewer(s) for their time and consideration, it’s good to refresh the hiring panel about the skills and benefits you have to offer.
Write a professional thank you letter to bring up anything you didn’t explain fully during an interview or that you didn’t get to discuss what you think is valuable to the position.
The thank you letter serves to remind the interviewers of your interest in the position. Sometimes, after an interview, a candidate will change their mind about wanting the position. By sending a note, you will communicate to the interviewers you are motivated and interest in the job.
Send the thank you letter right after your interview within 24 hours if you want to take advantage of its maximum benefit.
If the hiring representative states at the end of the interview that they will call you within a particular time frame to let you know of their decision, make sure you are available to receive the call. If the administrator doesn’t call on this day, you should make a follow-up call. Not only will this let you know of the decision, but it will show your interest in the position.
Many schools will only call successful candidates, so call the school if a week or two go by without hearing anything. This may be your only way of finding out for sure whether or not you got the job. If you don’t get the position, thank them for the opportunity to interview. Confidently and politely ask for some feedback regarding the job interview and your credentials so that you can improve for your next meeting.
All of these little steps taken after an interview can mean the difference between gaining a dream teaching position and being disappointed. The job interview process isn’t over right after the meeting!
If you haven’t made any interviewing mistakes during your job interview, you could land a job offer.
