Saturday, May 2, 2009

Keep On Selling Yourself Even After The Thank Yous

We all know that you should send a thank you note (or email) to the people you interviewed with. And that you should add more information about your skills and accomplishments to further sell yourself.

I'm finding that you need to keep on selling yourself even after the thank yous. You need to stay foremost in the mind of the hiring manager as s/he interviews other qualified candidates and eventually needs to make a choice.
Keep on selling yourself and don't stop until you have an offer or you are no longer interested in the job. Here are some ideas and real-life examples:
Elephant In The Room - I had a phone interview and my gut told me it didn't go well. I looked up the hiring manager on LinkedIn to better get to know her. I sent her an email confessing that I didn't think the phone interview went well but I'm a great candidate for the job and explained why. One hour after I sent the email, she contacted me to schedule an in-person interview. When we met, she confessed she wasn't going to call me but she was impressed with my email. I thanked her for giving me a second chance for a first impression.

Pizza Interview - A candidate was referred to a job and was suppose to connect with the hiring manager, but the hiring manager was too busy to schedule a meeting. The person who made the referral said the hiring manager was still interested in interviewing him but was just having difficulty finding the time. The candidate had to get in front of the hiring manager somehow, so he bought a pizza, printed out his resume and drove to the offices of the hiring manager at lunch time. He told the receptionist that he had a pizza for the hiring manager and when s/he came to the front, the candidate proposed a lunch interview.

Coffee On Me - My friend wasn't convinced the hiring manager was "wow-ed" with her in the interview. She bought a coffee cup and a $5 dollar gift card from Starbucks. She delivered them with a well-crafted letter saying she didn't think he was impressed with her so "have a cup of coffee on me and let me tell you more about myself." The hiring manager replied that he had been impressed with her and now even more so.

Recipe For Success - Another friend delivered home-baked cookies with her "recipe for success" which outlined how mixing her skills and experience with the employers needs would make a perfect creation.

If you're submitting your resume online via email or a website, it's
bound to get buried under hundreds of other emails and submissions. Try to stay on top (literally) by submitting your resume every 5-8 days with a different subject line each time. Submit at the end of the day so that your resume is on top of the pile in the morning when the hiring manager logs on.

How often you connect after the interview and what interesting way you stay connected depends on who you are, what job you interviewed for and what you think is best. Just keep selling yourself.


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