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How many times have you sent in a resume and waited and waited and waited, wondering when, or if the employer was going to make a decision?

• Have they already hired someone else?
• Should I keep looking for other jobs while I wait to hear from them?
• What can I do to find out if I am even in the running for this job?

An effective follow-up after submitting a resume can assist you in answering these questions.

Planning Follow-Up Calls

Sample Follow-Up Calls

Tips for effective follow-up calls

 

Planning Follow-Up Calls

Hopefully from the preliminary research that you did while preparing your resume, or from an advertisement that you had responded to, you have some basic information about the company that you applied to including:

• the position you had applied for
• the company's requirements to fill the position
• the location of the company
• a telephone or fax number, or email address, and
• a contact person

The follow-up you do after submitting a resume is a little different than what you would do after an interview. Your follow-up at this point will generally take the form of a brief telephone call of no longer than 5 - 10 minutes.

Basically we want an opportunity to talk to the employer, or someone else in the company who can provide us with information on how their hiring is proceeding.

An excellent opener to a brief follow-up call is to mention towards the end of your cover letter that you will be following up in a few days to confirm the receipt of your resume and discuss interview opportunities. At the very least this gives you a reason for calling if questioned.

Remember, your follow-up call is a great opportunity to build familiarity with that potential employer.

Sample Follow-Up Calls

A follow-up call may sound something like this:

 Job Seeker:

"Good afternoon, may I speak to Mr. Jones please?"

Receptionist:

"May I tell him who's calling?

Job Seeker:

"My name is Deana Goss and I am following up regarding the office administration position. I submitted my resume to Mr. Jones last week."

Receptionist:

"Just one moment please, I will see if he is available to take your call."

Job Seeker:

"Thank you."

Receptionist:

"I am sorry Ms. Goss but Mr. Jones cannot come to the phone at the moment, but he did ask me to pass along the message that he did receive your resume and he is planning to set up interviews at the beginning of next week. If you are chosen for an interview, you should hear from us before Friday. Was there anything else I could help you with at this point?"

Job Seeker:

"No, that is great information to know, thank you. If I don't hear from you by Friday should I assume that I wasn't selected for an interview?"

Receptionist:

"Yes I would think so, however if you wanted to call back later in the afternoon on Friday, I could let you know if anything has changed."

Job Seeker:

"That would be great. Can I have your name?"

Receptionist:

"My name is Amanda"

Job Seeker:

"Thank you for all your help Amanda, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. Good bye."

We can see from the example that the job seeker was not overly pushy in trying to speak to the employer directly, instead she was given the information she needed by the receptionist. The job seeker was smart to ask for the receptionist's name in case she does follow up again, she can ensure that she is talking to the same person.

What could the job seeker have done better in this call?

Some tips for effective follow-up calls

• be in a quiet environment
• be assertive, but not aggressive
• if the contact person is not available, try to get the information from someone else, or ask when it would be a good time to call back
• don't leave a message on voice mail, or leave your phone number, this puts control back into the employer's hands and you may find yourself waiting to hear back from them
• have a copy of your resume and cover letter in front of you to refer to
• plan some questions to ask, or points that you want to make sure you cover in your call
• be polite with everyone you encounter, acknowledge that they are busy and you appreciate them taking the time to talk to you
• follow through on any suggestions the employer gives you ("call back in a week", "submit another copy of your resume", "talk to so and so" etc.)
• use the follow-up to build familiarity with the employer