I just had an interview for job about a week ago, what should I say if I call to follow up?

Question

I just had an interview at Wal-Mart for a Pharmacy Technician position. Today is Monday, I had the interview last Wednesday. I felt that the interview went really well and would like to follow up cause I really want the job and I'm curious when she might have a decision. I don't know what to say when I call her.. Any ideas??

Answer 1

Send a note or email thanking them for the interview, tell them how excited you are about the position and that you can't wait to make a positive contribution to the team and customers.  Close w/I look forward to hearing from you soon.  A week isn't very long to hear back for a decision, they may still be interviewing and had these interviews scheduled before they met w/you, that or they maybe checking references and sometimes it's hard to get a hold of a reference. What did they tell you at the end of the interview; did they say they will contact you when a decision is made, you'll hear from them shortly - I ask that because you want to follow the direction they gave you, if you haven't heard anything yet that means no decision has been made.  If you don't hear anything by Friday you can call, and just say you interviewed for a Pharmacy Tech position over a week ago and you were wondering if any decisions have been made.  But don't be surprised to hear, they are still interviewing or no decision has been made yet. Much patience is required when interviewing, if you call once w/a follow up leave it at that, to call more than once is irritating to the interviewer and we think to ourselves, didn't I tell them I would call them when I made a decision.  Don't be fooled by all the sites and people that say call and follow up, keep doing that.  The employer knows they have a job to fill and they know they interviewed you and don't need to be reminded, when your busy and have no decision on a job yet it's irritating to have people calling when we already told them we will get back with them.

HR Manager

Answer 2

First, if you haven't done so already, you should write a thank you note (or thank you email) to the person or people who interviewed you. Each person should receive an individual note...it's a pain, but it's worth it. Hand-written is nice, but today email is perfectly acceptable. Triple check the notes for spelling mistakes and grammar -- they should be perfect.  This should be a nice reminder to them to call you back. At the end of your note you can even ask when you can expect to hear back from them.

In the note, thank the interviewer for the interview, emphasize again how excited you are about the possibility of joining Wal-Mart, and then ask if there's any other information you could share that would help them with their decision (such as additional references).

A great thing to do in your note is to reference something that you discussed during your interview. That allows you to say: "I was thinking about what you said regarding X, and it made a big impression on me..."

If you've already done sent your thank you note, we don't recommend calling until this coming Thursday at the earliest. Most places need at least a week to make a decision, given that they're usually interviewing multiple people for the position, and have to work around all of their schedules. It's not unusual for them to take a month or more to make a decision like this if they are interviewing a lot of folks.

When you do call at the end of the week, be very upbeat and positive. Let the person know how much you enjoyed the interview and how excited you are about the position. You can also say that you're interviewing with a number of places, and just wanted to get a better sense from them about what their hiring timeline looks like. This won't hurt you at all -- people understand that job seekers are trying to plan their life around things like this.  

Just be sure not to call more than twice -- perhaps you could call again in another month if you still haven't heard from them. But people who keep calling risk annoying their potential employer.  Better to spend your time applying at more places -- especially given how much demand there is for pharmacy techs.

Hope this is helpful! If you'd like more advice, visit us at http://www.PrepSession.com/ or call us at 888-501-PREP. A short video about how our company works can be found at:  http://www.prepsession.com/about-us/how-...