When going through the job search process, it can become tempting to want to follow up with a company after applying for a job with them, especially if it’s been a couple weeks and you have yet to hear from them. But when does following up become overkill? In the entertainment and music industry’s current job market, any amount of follow-up could be considered overkill.
Since we are in a job market and industry where the pool of applicants is exponentially larger than the amount of available jobs, think about how bogged down the hiring process would become if each applicant followed up to the resume he or she sent for a job opening and the hiring staff responded to each follow up. It’s just humanly impossible for staff to do so without putting a strain on their current workload and slowing down the hiring process. This is the reason why many job ads include the statement, “No phone calls please.”
Be Patient.
Once you have submitted your resume and application for a job opening, you must learn how to then be patient. But, being patient doesn’t mean being inactive. Instead, you want to continue to look and apply for other opportunities within the industry. The only follow-up that might be appropriate at this point in the job search is to try and connect on LinkedIn with the person making the final hiring decision (usually the supervisor in the department where the job is housed). If you choose to try to connect with this person via LinkedIn, make sure to change the generic wording for the connection request to something a little more personable, yet professional. For instance, you might say, “I have recently applied for a job with [company name] and look forward to the potential opportunity to meet you and discuss my qualifications.”
Thank Them.
Then, once you have landed an interview, you gain an appropriate opportunity to follow up immediately after the interview with a thank you note. This should be sent 24 to 48 hours after the interview to each person with whom you interviewed (make sure you have the correct spelling of their names!). While it is not necessarily wrong to send a handwritten thank you note, I always recommend keeping things professional by sending a type-written thank you note (much in the same format as your cover letter), especially since the thank you note following an interview should not only address your appreciation for the opportunity and their consideration, but also anything about your skills you want to reiterate or anything you didn’t have the opportunity to discuss in the interview that may be of importance or interest to the reader.
After sending the thank you note, resist the urge to follow up again, even if you don’t hear anything back for a while. Instead, use that time to prepare for the possibility of second-round interviews. Go over any notes you took during the interview. Make note of how you responded to the questions so you can provide consistent answers to similar questions in the follow-up interview.
Continue Your Pursuit.
While awaiting a response following your job interview, continue your pursuit of other opportunities. Doing so will prevent you from wasting time and putting all your hope in one opportunity, and it may also give you some leverage when multiple offers start coming in. Also spend this time becoming familiar with money negotiation tactics and notifying your references that they may soon be contacted by the company. Always let your references know when you have accepted an offer and take the time to thank them for their assistance.