HAD A TERRIBLE INTERVIEW? DON’T WORRY, IT CAN STILL BE TURNED AROUND

I got a frantic call from a previous client, Suzie, who had worked with me 3 years back to secure her role. Suzie was a through and through start-up person who had joined some of the unicorns at the early stage and left when the finance function under her purview was stable. Her start-up was now restructuring and while she had helped them to set-up the finance function from scratch, she decided to bow out to find another exciting venture which was looking at scaling up.

Using some of the strategies we had previously employed, she got interview calls within 2 weeks of starting her search. This call was a panic attack after “The most terrible interview of my life and you know how bad I am at interviewing” Suzie had met up with the CEO and HR Director previously. She was to report into the COO and his decision was to carry the most weightage. “Shub, there were major pauses in our interview of only 30 mins. There was once a pause so long where if this was a video interview, I would have assumed that the screen froze. I love the role, I can add a lot of value and I wanted to see if there is absolutely anything I could do.”

I immediately advised Suzie to draft a “Thank You email”. Yes, the email which so many job seekers forget to send or just don’t care about to draft. And honestly, if you are using a standard template, thank you emails can be ineffective. The key was to use the language of the COO to show that Suzie heard him and to show her enthusiasm to join the role. I felt that just like Suzie felt the COO wasn’t interested in hiring her and hence, had nothing more to speak. The COO may have felt that Suzie wasn’t interested in the role.

Quickly we drafted a Thank You email and sent it over. 10 days later Suzie was offered a role in the company.

So, how to create a Thank You email that gets you the job? I advocate covering 4 things with your thank you email.

1.      Genuinely thank them for their time and opportunity.

It is common courtesy and shows your manners. It also makes the other person feel that their time is valued.

2.      Talk about what interests you in the role in their language.

The interviewer would have explained the role to you, if not on their own accord than through your questions. What were some of the terms they used repeatedly? What did they highlight as the critical responsibilities for the role at hand?

3.      Talk about how you can contribute to the role at hand with examples, if possible.

Do they need someone with X? Write about how having implemented X in ABC company, you feel confident about helping them in this field.

4.      Have a call-to-action for the next steps.

Re-affirm how excited you are about this opportunity and check on the subsequent steps. If you think the interview was terrible, you may even approach have a follow-up conversation/ meeting with them.

What are some of your success stories with Thank You emails?

JobS-ME: Job Search Made Easy

JobS-ME is a training, coaching and consulting company helping professionals get their next ideal job fast. True to its name, JobS-ME was launched to make job-search easy and effective.