The job interview follow-up provides a valuable opportunity to lock in your dream job. While other candidates merely wait to be called with an offer, you can be continuing to impress your interviewers and provide even more convincing demonstrations of your suitability for the position. The first job interview follow-up should be the post interview thank you letter. This thank you letter should begin with the basic information which each thank you letter contains: "Thanks for your time," "I enjoyed learning more about the company," "I'm still very interested in the opportunity" and "Please feel free to call me for more information." To increase the value of your thank you letter, however, the savvy job interviewer adds a "gift."
A gift in the job interview follow-up is a piece of information the interviewer may find valuable. For instance, the name of a restaurant, a contact, an article about a subject the interviewer is passionate about and similar tidbits. These gifts, if they are of interest to the interviewer, make the applicant more memorable and impressive than the other applicants. Such gestures show the candidate is motivated, organized, and pays attention to the needs and wants of other people. A letter and gift also creates a feeling of gratitude and connection between the interviewer and the applicant, which transforms the interviewer into an ally in the job search process. Last but not least, these gifts make the interviewer look forward to the job interview follow-up communications from the applicant. They aren't just empty words anymore, they are messages with value.
Making communications valuable to the interviewer is important because the job interview follow-up phase of the job search might last for months. Many times, there can be a long delay between candidate interviews and official hiring. Sometimes there are management absences, budget issues, or bureaucratic power struggles that hold up the process. But if you are the candidate, each day that goes by without a hire makes you recede further and further from the interviewer's memory. Only by consistent, respectful job interview follow-up can you protect yourself from being forgotten and passed over in favor of a later candidate.
Deciding what gifts to give the interviewer in the job interview follow-up requires that you pay close attention to the subjects and topics that come up in your communications with the interviewer. During the time the two of you speak, there may be a subject which makes that interviewer become perceptively more animated and interested. This could be the subject you will use to create a gift. For example, he or she may mention some personal information or travel plan you can use as a starting point. After your interview, be sure to make some quick notes so you'll remember these topics and then go from there to provide your gift.