STEP 7

Effective Follow-Up— Differentiate Yourself and Build Long-Term Relationships

Andrew played basketball in college, which meant that he didn’t have time during summers for internships. As a result, he didn’t have a clear idea of what he wanted to do as a career. During his senior year, in 2015, Andrew applied online to a wide variety of jobs but found it challenging to get interviews. Of the few interviews he did receive, none resulted in a job offer. Companies would typically tell him, “Thanks for your interest, but we went with someone who had more experience.”

Andrew needed a job after graduation, so he persevered and made it to the final round of interviews for a sales position, meeting with a manager named Maria. Although Andrew felt good about how the interview went, he received an email several days later from the company’s recruiter informing him that they would not be making him a job offer. Andrew was dismayed, but he reached out to the recruiter and asked for the hiring manager’s email so that he could thank her for the consideration. In his email, Andrew thanked Maria for her time and asked if she could provide any feedback on how to improve.

Andrew received a long message from Maria with detailed feedback about his interview. She explained that Andrew had performed well and was a strong candidate for the position but that there were several areas for improvement. For example, she suggested that Andrew could have asked questions about the company and team at the end of the interview. In addition, since Andrew was applying for a sales position, Maria was looking for him to be more relaxed and confident during the interview. She also indicated that Andrew could have been more forthcoming in asking about next steps during the interview.

However, crucially for Andrew, Maria concluded with this line, “I do have other sales manager colleagues that may/may not have openings, so let me know if you would like an introduction to them for a conversation.” Andrew promptly responded with gratitude for the feedback and said that he would love an introduction. He didn’t hear from Maria for about a week, so Andrew sent her a follow-up email mentioning that he had seen an open position at the company on an online job board. This time, Maria responded, said that she appreciated Andrew’s persistence, and connected him to another hiring manager, Scott. Andrew had a phone call with Scott and then received an in-person interview the following week. At the end of this interview, Scott offered him a job, and Andrew joined the organization shortly afterward. Andrew’s effective follow-up transformed a rejection into a job!

Andrew and I spoke while I was writing this book, and he shared how effective follow-up had landed him another job in 2020. After several years in sales positions, Andrew had become a successful account executive at a large company, but he wanted to try his hand at a smaller, early-stage company. The timing of this change could not have been worse. The organization had to make some dramatic shifts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and after only a few months on the job, Andrew’s position was eliminated.

Andrew told me that he once again used the Career Launch Method, making a top ten list and doing outreach. He sent an email to an alumnus who was the senior vice president at a company he thought would be a good match. After their career conversation, Andrew followed up and asked if the VP could put him in touch with a hiring manager. Over email, the VP asked for his résumé and made a referral for Andrew. After several interviews, Andrew was hired.

Andrew’s story shows that effective follow-up can be even more critical than a career conversation or formal interview. I find that students too often fail to realize the power of following up. There is almost always a polite way to continue the relationship.

Note: as someone with many years of hiring experience, I can add that effective follow-up sometimes is the difference maker when choosing between two equally qualified candidates.

As a senior, Andrew had been applying through online job portals for months, but he wasn’t able to land a job until he embraced a holistic job search that included a focus on career conversations. His efforts created a relationship that, despite rejection, eventually led to a job offer.

In steps 4–6, we, we discussed that the goal of your career conversations is not just to learn but also to build a relationship. When it comes to building relationships, follow-up is essential.

Think about the difference between the experiences of two students looking for jobs around the time of their graduation. The first student never had a career conversation or gave much thought to what she wanted to do with her life, and so she was primarily applying to jobs online and trying to catch up by networking as much as possible. Her counterpart started doing career conversations during her sophomore year and followed up with these professionals occasionally throughout college. After doing an average of ten career conversations per year for three years, she had amassed a network of thirty professionals in her fields of interest to whom she could reach out about positions. If this student was interested in one of the companies where she had already started a relationship with an employee, she would be in a great position to reach out to those people and ask them for a referral or connection to a hiring manager. She would not have to spend as much time applying to jobs online because she built her network before she needed it and then used follow-up requests to conduct her job search.

If you are a senior or have recently completed your degree or certificate and have not yet done any career conversations, it is not too late to start. Just look to Isaac’s and Andrew’s stories, and Ivanna’s story in step 8. Obviously, however, starting early and occasionally following up with these professionals puts you in a more advantageous position to land a job you want upon completion of your schooling.

KEY TAKEAWAY #1: SEPARATE YOURSELF FROM THE COMPETITION

When she responded to Andrew’s request for interview feedback, Maria told him that he was one of only a handful of candidates in her eighteen-year career who had asked for feedback. With his thank-you email and simple request, Andrew had separated himself from the competition and showed that he was the sort of person (employee) who was dedicated to self-improvement. Note that it is not best practice to ask for feedback during an interview, because some employers view it as a lack of confidence, but it can be effective after you’ve been told you didn’t get the job. When searching for jobs, you should always be on the lookout for ways to differentiate yourself.

The first step in being able to effectively follow up is to take notes. You should be taking some notes during the conversation, and as soon as the conversation or interview ends, you should write down all of your key takeaways. Psychologists have found that most people forget about 40% of what they have heard just twenty minutes after a conversation.¹ That number increases to forgetting 70% one day later. To counteract this human process, you should take notes, which will be helpful in constructing your follow-up messages and building relationships.

There are three main considerations when taking notes.

Your next step is to send an email to the individual with whom you had a career conversation, first thing the next morning (preferably between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m.).

I know that there are ways to schedule your email, but there are two reasons why you should send it manually. First, I’ve had multiple students tell me they used the scheduling feature and accidentally sent their follow-up emails a week later instead of the next morning. Second, some companies have software that will flag emails that are sent using a scheduling feature, which defeats part of the purpose.

I advocate sending the email early in the morning to show that you are an early riser who is reflective. Professionals notice the time stamp on incoming emails, and this will positively impact your personal brand. It also is best practice, when you have an important but not urgent email to write, to “sleep on it.” If your natural tendency is to fire off a thank-you email hours after a meeting, or a few days later, I encourage you to consider this “next morning” timeline.

Hanna, a former student studying physical therapy in Pennsylvania, sent her thank-you email at 6:45 a.m., received a 9:00 a.m. phone call from an impressed hiring manager acknowledging her early morning email, and then got another phone call that day at 4:00 p.m. with a job offer.

In your thank-you email, you should express gratitude for the professional’s time and include one of the key takeaways from your notes. Rather than being generic (“Thank you for helping me”), be specific (“Your insights on the difference between account manager and account executive roles will be really helpful in my job search process”). The template below can help you shape your thank-you email.

Subject line: Thank you from [Your Name]

Dear [Name],

It was great to talk with you yesterday. I really appreciate your making time for me, and I appreciated learning about your experiences. In particular, I enjoyed what you said about ________. I need to give that more thought as I transition from college into a career.

It was also great to learn about _________. I appreciate your advice. I’ll certainly be mindful of that going forward. [Or “I’ll start working on that right away.”]

Thank you for encouraging me to stay in touch [and offering to introduce me to ______].

I have attached my résumé to this email. I would appreciate your keeping me in mind for any positions that would be a good fit.

Again, many thanks.
[Your Name]

Sending a thank-you email is an important step, but I also highly recommend sending a handwritten thank-you note if you know the address where the person works. If you know that the person you spoke with is working from home and you don’t know their address, you can skip this step, but handwritten notes are one of the best ways to differentiate yourself from the mass of applicants. Countless former students have told me their handwritten thank-you note was a difference-maker. Yuho, was one of two thousand applicants for two available positions with Adidas in Japan in early 2021, was explicity told that her handwritten thank-you note was one of the reasons she got her full-time job.

Below is a template for your handwritten thank-you notes.

Dear [Name],

Thanks again for your time [earlier this week/last week]. I’ve already [started thinking about _______, or started doing _______] and I’m excited about _______.

Learning about [be specific, not general, about one of the main things you learned] was really valuable. I’ll certainly keep that in mind as I prepare to launch my career.

With much appreciation,
[Your Name]

Below is a template for how to address a letter to a company or organization.

[Organization Name]
Attn: [Recipient Name]
[Recipient Job Title] 500 Main St.
City, State [and] Zip Code

KEY TAKEAWAY #2: KEEP THE RELATIONSHIP ALIVE

You don’t want to reach out to someone only when you need them—you want to build an enduring relationship. Think about your friendships: if someone always asked for your help but never gave anything back to you in return, your friendship would neither be strong nor survive for very long. Networking with professionals is obviously different, because you are speaking with people who have more experience than you do. However, if you have maintained a casual relationship over time, you’re more likely to receive a prompt and thorough response from the person when you get back in touch with a specific question or request.

Many students mistakenly think that keeping a relationship alive requires an enormous investment of time and energy. On the contrary, your follow-up messages not only can be short and simple but also should be short and simple. Keeping in touch just a few times over the year is generally enough to keep the relationship alive. It is not best practice to reach out more than once every few months unless you get the sense that the person is excited to engage with you because of some mutual interests and/or common concerns.

Unlike your career conversation requests, these follow-up messages should not end with a question, unless you have established a strong interpersonal relationship. This might sound counterintuitive, but let me explain. If you ask someone in your message “How are you doing?,” they may avoid responding because it would require time to prepare a thoughtful answer. When you send a note that doesn’t include a question, it simply reminds them of your conversation and what you’ve been doing since or thinking about. You don’t burden them with the necessity of taking much time to acknowledge and/or respond to your note. Yet your goal is accomplished: you’ve stayed in touch, they think positively of you, and they’ll be more inclined to help you in the future when you have a request.

Another common objection that I hear from students is that they don’t know what to say in a follow-up message. To make this action as easy as possible, here are three frameworks for sending messages in an effort to build long-term relationships.

1. The “Thought of You” Method

As the name suggests, this type of message is sent to tell someone that you were reminded of them based on something from your conversation. For example, maybe you have a professor who speaks about the professional’s industry or job function during class. Or maybe you discussed a common love of science fiction books during your career conversation. After class, or the next time you finish a science fiction book, you can send them a short message saying that it made you think of them.

This also works well with online articles. Perhaps you saw an article celebrating an achievement of the person’s company or an article about a topic from your conversation, either related or unrelated to career. You can email them the article and say that it reminded you of something that the two of you had discussed.

Remember, most of the time it is better to end these messages by writing something like “Hope you’re doing well” than with a question. You’ll be more likely to get a response, and it’s better for your personal brand.

2. The Reflection and Gratitude Method

Another easy way to keep in touch with professionals is by sending messages around key milestones in the calendar, such as the end of the quarter/semester or academic year or holidays such as Thanksgiving and New Year’s. In these messages, you can say that you have been reflecting on your conversation and continue to be grateful that they made themselves available to talk with you. Your message could be something like, “As I finish my junior year, I was reflecting on what I learned from our conversation and wanted to thank you again for taking the time to give me advice on my career [or job search or the like]. I hope you are doing well.” Or, “During this time of Thanksgiving, I’ve thought about how grateful I am for you taking the time to meet with me earlier this year and providing me with your perspective and guidance. Happy holidays.”

If there are more than a handful of people with whom you want to build longer-term relationships, it can be difficult to keep track of when you have reached out to people. The great thing about this method is that you can keep a list of everyone you want to follow up with and send all these messages around your chosen timelines.

3. The Social Media Method

This method relies on social media to form brief connections that keep you at the top of their minds. I’ll refer to LinkedIn here, but other social media networks, like Twitter or Instagram, also may work, depending on the person, their industry, and what is most appropriate. If the professional posts on LinkedIn, you can comment on their post. If they have commented on someone else’s post, you can reply to their comments. Most people don’t look at everyone who has simply liked a post, but commenting, often quite briefly, does often get noticed and shows that you are engaged. It will help you keep the relationship alive.

Many professionals maintain an active presence on LinkedIn even if they don’t regularly post or comment. In this case, you can share a relevant post or article with them through a private message. Share the link and a few sentences about why you thought the post or article would be of interest to them, again linking back to your overlapping interests. And again, do not end with a question.

If you use these methods you will develop future allies, supporters, and champions. You don’t want to think of career conversations as one-off meetings. Take the long view and build a relationship over time. If you are part of a student group or club, perhaps you can extend invitations to be a guest speaker or to a networking event. Building relationships can be tough when there is a wide age or professional gap, but if you focus on keeping the person apprised of your progress and you are seen as grateful, not constantly taking, it shows you listened and their advice mattered.

In preparation for this book, I conducted qualitative interviews with professionals whom my students had met with for career conversations. Consistently, the professionals told me they really enjoy hearing from students months and years after the initial career converation. Though, one woman shared with me that she never heard from my student after the thank-you email and handwritten thank-you note, which she said was a bummer because she would have offered the student an internship. She didn’t feel it was her responsiblity to reach out to the student so she chose someone else. So, be sure to make time to keep your relationships alive.

REVIEW AND REFLECT