How to Seal the Deal After a Job Interview

The interview is over, and you are experiencing a mishmosh of emotions. You think you did well, but you can never really tell, can you? You feel like they loved you, but you aren’t quite sure. You know you aced that dreaded “Tell me about yourself” question, but you think you may have bombed that other one about your weakness…

Not to worry — even if you did make a few mistakes, there is still a chance to redeem yourself after the interview is over. It’s all about the followup!

According to the 2013 Global Career Brainstorming Day report, less than 10 percent of candidates send out thank-you notes — which means that being one of those few who do send out such notes is a great way to stand out from your competition in the job marke t. Thank-you notes are also a great way to reinforce your positive qualities and downplay any missteps made during the interview process.

Now, you don’t want to seem too eager by sending a thank-you notes as soon as you get home, but you also don’t want the company to forget about you, either. So, make sure you send your thank-you note within 24 hours; a great rule of thumb is to send it out the morning after the interview.

You know you need to send a note — but what the heck should you say in the note?

Here’s the key: start working!

That is, use your thank-you note as a way to start working before you even get hired. In the note, tell the employer exactly what you will do once you start at the job. Do some digging and find out some of the challenges the company faces. Then, address those specific challenges in your thank-you note.

Still not sure what to write? Here’s a quick example to help you:

Dear Mr. Future Boss,

I deeply appreciate the time you took to speak with me about the marketing assistant role.

I was just thinking about what you mentioned regarding not being able to keep customers engaged on social media. Have you considered implementing more interactive posts with visuals and video?

We had a similar problem at my last company, and after doing some research, I realized that posts that leveraged video and implemented specific calls to action received the most responses. I put together an entire campaign that ended up driving our engagement up by 40 percent.

Based on your industry and ideal customer, I have a few ideas that, I believe, are certain to boost your social media interaction levels as well.

As you can probably tell, I truly enjoy helping progressive companies like yours connect with their customers, and I would be delighted to join your team to do just that.

Thank you again, Mr. Future Boss. I look forward to your response.

In this example, you have already given the employer ideas to improve and address its challenges! How’s that for a thank-you letter?

If you execute this kind of thank-you note well, the hiring managers will be knocking down your door, even if you were mediocre in the interview. Why? Because you not only wrote a thank-you note, but you also took it a step further and starting working before you were even hired!

Now that’s how you seal a deal!