Is NO Really a NO in a Job Search

You go to an interview and it goes well, they call you back for a second one and it seems to go well. The next day you get a call thanking you for your interest but there is no more need to contact them. You ask a couple of questions about what you could do differently and they say you were find but they just do not have a spot for you. What do you do now?

I saw a program on hiring top sales people for a really great company. They told every one they did not get the job. The people that came back and kept questioning them actually got the job. It is an interesting hiring strategy, even if the company you are interested in is not using it, ask them questions and keep going till you get some answers.

In this company's case they were selling really top end equipment and the company wanted to know their sales force could keep going even in the face of total rejection. However any company would love to hire people that just kept going in an intelligent manner.

When do you know to keep going, look at what has happened so far. In our example the first interview went well, they got a call back. The second interview went well and then out of the blue a phone call. Why would they call, a letter would have done it easier. As no one likely enjoys calling to say, "Hi, we are not going to hire you". It just does not make sense.

It does make sense to fully investigate all job opportunities that go past a first interview. Sometimes they will hire another person, keep after them. You want to be on their radar screen still. In the first three months that new employee may do something that gets them fired. It happens all the time, the HR departments thinks they have the perfect person only to find out their newest employee is a closet drunk.

The HR person rushes back to the files to see whom they can call to hire and your name is on the top of the list. How much time would that have taken you to do? Likely two or three phone calls of five minutes each, that's all. If you are serious about getting your dream job 15 minutes is a small price to keep in touch.

The great sales trainer Tom Hopkins has a saying about this I think fits. "You follow up, follow up and follow up until they buy or die." It can be applied to the job search process just as easily as the sales process. Now go do it.