Communication After the Interview #

Immediately after the interivew #

Generally, I send a follow-up email to my recruiter immediately after the interview. In this email, I'll let them know that I appreciate all the work they did to facilitate my interview process, I'll let them know that I enjoyed the process (only if I thought it was a good process and the interviewers were good), and that I'm really looking forward to hearing back about the position. If your recruiter hasn't yet told you how long it takes to make a decision, this is a good time to ask.

I'll do this follow-up regardless of how I think I did on the interview. Ever since I passed a FAANG interview that I thought I did poorly on, I always assume I have a shot until I officially hear "no."

Following up #

Hopefully, your recruiter has told you how long it takes to get a decision back to you. If you haven't heard by a day or two after that period of time, send a gentle follow-up. Recruiters are often juggling a bunch of candidates for many positions. It's a good idea to keep top-of-mind and they won't be annoyed. Your email can just reiterate how excited you are for the position and ask if the recruiter has any updates on your status.

Potential outcomes #

There are a few potential outcomes I have seen at this point:

• An offer. Huzzah!
• Hiring manager discussion. If the recruiter sets you up with a discussion with your potential future hiring manager, this is a really good sign. You're at least in very strong contention for an offer or they already know they'll make one.
• More interviews. Some companies will send you to more interviews if they want to hire you but need a bit more information to feel comfortable making that decision. Which having to do more interviews can be frustrating, I think this is actually a great result! The company is willing to spend more time and energy on hiring you.
• Not selected. My most frequent result! This always stinks, but remember the baseball player analogy I made earlier: the best players in the game only get on base 1/3 of the time. The best interview candidates do even worse than that. When you're not selected, you usually just get a template email from the recruiter.

Handling offers #

Congratulations!

Negotiating is out of scope for this handbook. I will say that you will put yourself in the best position if you have multiple offers since that gives you negotiating power. If possible, try to find out how well you did in the interviews. Some recruiters will tell you that you really knocked the interview out of the park, meaning the company wants you and you can probably negotiate more.

Handling not being selected #

Feeling rejected stinks. It's important to remember that it's not the rejections that count: if you have 10 rejections and one offer, then you win!

When you do hear from a recruiter that you haven't been selected, see if they're willing to give you specific feedback from your interview sessions. It's an incredible opportunity to learn and improve. That being said, many companies won't give you any feedback. But it's worth a shot!