Gary Will's WORKSEARCH:
Selling Yourself To An Employer
Chapter 22: (continued)
Following up without being a pest
From the book How to Prepare for an Employment Interview.
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[Chapter 22: continued from here
] ...NO MATTER HOW WELL THINGS SEEM TO GO IN THE INTERVIEW, DON'T ASSUME YOU'LL GET AN OFFER.
Don't let up on any other leads until you have a firm offer and have negotiated salary, benefits, and starting date. In fact, until they day comes when you show up for work, and people there expect you and you're given work to do, always be prepared for the possibility that something could go wrong.
Even then, you should avoid cutting all ties with any other organizations you've been meeting with. You never know how soon you may be looking for another opportunity.
2003 Addendum:
Now that access to e-mail has become commonplace, we should revisit the issue of thank-you notes. Before the Internet took off in the mid-to-late 1990s, follow up letters were an involved process-you had to type it up, address an envelope, get a stamp, mail it ... and then the person on the other end would eventually have to open it up and take the time to read it.
It really wasn't worth everyone's time unless you had something substantial to say.
Now most people have e-mail, and sending a simple, short note is not only technologically simple, but something done regularly every day.
So, if you have e-mail addresses for the people you met in your interviews, I don't see any downside in sending them a quick "it was nice to meet you"-type e-mail, even if you don't see any strategic opportunity to distinguish yourself from the competition.
[Next: Chapter 23: Some final thoughts ]
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