Post-Interview Strategy

So, you didn’t get the job.

Sometimes this is a relief, of course, as it is often only when you meet the people who work for an organisation that you get the real feel of company culture.  I spend a lot of time in different forensics/edisclosure companies and although they carry out the same work as other organisations in the sector, that is often where the similarity ends.

Have you ever had that experience when you walk into a room and know that you just don’t fit in – oh...just me then!?  You know what I mean, the feeling Nick Clegg must have whenever he is invited to a gathering of politicians with convictions and policies.  Well, if you are not happy in an organisational culture then that organisation just isn’t going to make you happy and you won’t stay.

But at this interview you felt that the culture was right and the job was an incredibly exciting opportunity.  When you were told you had been unsuccessful what was your initial reaction:

• Burn down the building? 
• Machete attack on the misguided Hiring Manager? 

Understandable and we have all done both – just a little unfunny joke, of course - but long-term there are probably a few minor repercussions.

Instead, why not send the Hiring Manager an email expressing your disappointment at this result but emphasising your continuing interest in joining the Team if the opportunity arises.  Reinforce this action by sending the Manager a LinkedIn request and following them on twitter so that if a vacancy does occur in the Team you are likely to know about it!

I have seen numerous people who were initially unsuccessful at interview end up working for the company – on more than one occasion replacing the Hiring Manager!  It is all about reacting to disappointment in the way that makes ‘them’ realise that it was a mistake not to recruit you and making it easy to hire you next time. 

Essentially, this strategy is back to the basics I have mentioned in this blog so many times - make people like you and then you stand a much better chance of being offered the role.

Of course, if they have the nerve to reject you a second time it then starts getting personal,  but that never happens: does it??