Understanding Recruitment: Empowering Job Seekers for Better Interviewing
Interviewing for a new job can be an emotional and time-consuming process for many, especially in a remote world where home-life and work-life may converge. Feelings of hope and excitement can be mixed with anxiety, frustration, and overwhelm. Although, when you know what to expect as you enter into a job search, your nerves can settle knowing that you prepared as much as you could for the interviewing process. With that, hopefully you can gain that much more confidence and resilience to make it through and find a job that you truly love.
In our ebook, From Layoff to Lift Off: A Comprehensive Guide to Bounce Back in Your Career, we share tips on how to better understand the recruitment process to improve your interviewing skills and ultimately win at interviewing.
Understanding recruitment
Upon review of your application or receiving an interview request, companies will usually have at least 3 steps in their interview process for technical roles. This can include a phone screen with the recruiter, a technical screen, and an onsite interview. In a remote world, companies have taken the opportunity to create a remote interviewing experience that mirrors what it would be like to interview in person, especially for an onsite interview. It is best to practice for phone and video interviews, behavioral questions, how to give a summary of your experience as it relates to the roles you are interviewing for, and gathering your references.
It is important to note that, while most recruiters and hiring managers work hard to create a stellar candidate experience, they may also be inundated with messages. Upon review by a recruiter, your profile will also need to be reviewed by a hiring manager throughout the process. Because this is a team effort that requires careful consideration by the hiring team, there is time that Don’t be discouraged by automated messages or responses–dealing with a high candidate volume will require understanding and empathy on your part, as well.
Best practices for follow up
Being proactive while you interview is a great way to both impress the hiring team and manage your various interview processes. Following up after each interview with a note of gratitude and your next availability will help reiterate your interest and can expedite the scheduling process for your next interview. It works to your benefit to do so within 24 hours after your interview concludes as the discussion is fresh in your mind and you are still fresh in the mind of the interviewer. You can often catch the interviewer within their decision window before they debrief with others on the hiring team.
If you don’t hear back, don’t count the opportunity out–there could be various reasons for the silence. Prioritize the opportunities you are most interested in and follow up on your initial outreach in a sequence of 3 days, 4 days, then 4 days (not including weekends). As long as you lead with kindness and focus on your conversations with the individual you are reaching out to, instead of pitching yourself as a candidate, it can be a productive and positive signal to the team that you are still interested without seeming too pushy. More
