If you are interviewing with a company you want to be sure you know what the process is.  Think of it as sales.  No good sales person ends an appointment without scheduling the next one or a day and time to follow-up.  The interview process should be the same.  When you talk to a recruiter or hiring manager always find out what the next step is and when you should follow-up.  If they say “you will hear from us by Monday” and it is Tuesday you need to follow-up.  But be sure to follow-up the “right” way.

I encourage people to assume the best.  Don’t call or write saying “You said you would follow-up with me by Monday.  It is Tuesday and I still have not heard anything.”  No bueno for you.  Guess what?  Recruiters are not perfect, they make mistakes.  They also usually handle up to 30 open positions at one time so how about cutting a brother a break?

The better way to follow-up would sound something like this: “I hope you had a great weekend.  I am very excited about the next step in the interview process.  Please let me know if you need anything else from me.  I will follow-up with you tomorrow at noon, if that works for you.”  You could even say something like “I have missed emails in the past and I wanted to make sure I had not missed one from you.”

Remember that you are being evaluated throughout the entire process.  I don’t tell you that to make you nervous, just to keep you aware that both what you say and how you say it makes a difference.  You are the product and the sales person, the company is the customer.  That is not to say that they shouldn’t also be selling you, they should.  But you don’t want to be the weak link.

Al

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.
Dalai Lama