You’ve done your homework, all the research and networking
has paid off, the interviews are under your belt and now the waiting game
begins.
Finding myself in this position, I’ve done some soul searching, and
web searching to come up with some useful strategies while waiting for that potentially
life-changing email to arrive in my inbox.
I've included some strategies from an article published by Blessy Vaidian (who promotes the idea that a successful career comes from knowing who you are and what makes you happy) which I found useful. I hope you do too.
Do any of these scenarios in sound familiar?
- You applied for a job. You survived three sets of interviews where you had to answer 50 questions and ask another 50 to 50 different people, all while maintaining your “eager and enthusiasm” for the position. The staffers are now dissecting every aspect of their interactions with you, including the distracting baby hair that was sticking out from the right side of your head, your residual speech impediment and your professional demeanor. Or maybe they’re on vacation. You don’t really know. All you can do is wait for their final decision.
- You’re a freelancer who’s wooed your dream client for seven months and finally got a good meeting with them. You assured them how perfect you are for them and how affordable you are against your competitors. You’d even throw in a free hour of research to demonstrate your commitment. You gave them your final quote. Now you wait to see if they will assign you the project.
These grueling
waiting periods are typically characterized by obsessive email checking.
Never mind the fact
that Gmail refreshes on its own. You still F5 like there’s no tomorrow in
between every other thing you can possibly do on the web. (A paragraph from
CNN. F5. Inputting your doctor’s appointment. F5. CNN again. F5. A Reddit
thread. F5. F5. F5.) Every time you see a new message your heart jumps then
sinks when you realize it’s just another Godforsaken e-newsletter from Urban
Outfitters. Damn them. Even when your mom emails you, you’re disappointed.
Your life becomes
the email you’re waiting for.
This is unhealthy.
It can do some real temporary damage to your self-esteem not to mention your
productivity. Like my mom used to tell me, checking the fridge repeatedly
doesn’t mean the cake you want will show up.
Instead, I offer
you some beneficial and way cooler things you can do during this waiting time:
Log into your Google Calendar. Count about a week from the last point of contact with the person(s) whose email you’re waiting so patiently for. Mark the week-after date and type in “Follow up.” If you haven’t already figured… this is so you can follow up with them in about a week. Of course if they told you they’d contact you on a certain date, mark your calendar for the day after the date they promised.
Write your follow-up email. You never know if you’ll end up with food poisoning on that date and you don’t want to produce a sloppy, inadvertently pompous or impatient-sounding email. Write it down. Ask someone to edit it. Save it in your drafts.
Read this quote: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan
Accept the possibility of rejection and think of your Plan B. If you were already highly coveted and mind-blowingly fantastic, the company would be recruiting YOU and THEY’D be obsessively waiting for YOUR email. So simply accept that you have competition, you did the best that you could do (assuming that you did), and move on. Look for other jobs you want, other clients to prospect. Hey, you might even find something better along the way.
Write a fantastic “You just rejected me and you might regret it but I still want to be your friend and thanks for your time” email. I think a lot of people tend to skip this part after getting turned down, but it’s a huge mistake. You still want to stay connected with everyone you spoke to at the company. After all, you did invest hours of your time with them. Not only will this show them how professional, confident and genuinely interested you are (remember during the job interview when you said you felt the “job description fit like a glove”?), but they might pull you in for something else in the future. Or refer you. In fact, I recommend adding them on LinkedIn after the rejection and continuously feed them with helpful links and resources.
Plan your acceptance speech. On the flip side, you are pretty great. There is a reason why the client or the company responded to you in the first place. So prepare for the email you want by outlining what you’ll say to them and detail the SPECIFIC next steps. If you’re a freelancer this is especially important.
Get off the computer and perform some stretching exercises. Real exercises. You’ve just spend a large chunk of time with a keyboard as an extension of your limbs. You’ll be on it again tomorrow and the day after and the day after that. Let your poor body rest. Carpal tunnel is ugly.
Play Pacman. Do I even need to explain why? If you can access the original Super Mario Bros. series, even better. Just do something you really enjoy that doesn’t involve your computer or iPhone. The only way time will pass until that email finally comes is if you immerse yourself in so much fun that you momentarily forget about your email, you hard-working maniac.
Log into your Google Calendar. Count about a week from the last point of contact with the person(s) whose email you’re waiting so patiently for. Mark the week-after date and type in “Follow up.” If you haven’t already figured… this is so you can follow up with them in about a week. Of course if they told you they’d contact you on a certain date, mark your calendar for the day after the date they promised.
Write your follow-up email. You never know if you’ll end up with food poisoning on that date and you don’t want to produce a sloppy, inadvertently pompous or impatient-sounding email. Write it down. Ask someone to edit it. Save it in your drafts.
Read this quote: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan
Accept the possibility of rejection and think of your Plan B. If you were already highly coveted and mind-blowingly fantastic, the company would be recruiting YOU and THEY’D be obsessively waiting for YOUR email. So simply accept that you have competition, you did the best that you could do (assuming that you did), and move on. Look for other jobs you want, other clients to prospect. Hey, you might even find something better along the way.
Write a fantastic “You just rejected me and you might regret it but I still want to be your friend and thanks for your time” email. I think a lot of people tend to skip this part after getting turned down, but it’s a huge mistake. You still want to stay connected with everyone you spoke to at the company. After all, you did invest hours of your time with them. Not only will this show them how professional, confident and genuinely interested you are (remember during the job interview when you said you felt the “job description fit like a glove”?), but they might pull you in for something else in the future. Or refer you. In fact, I recommend adding them on LinkedIn after the rejection and continuously feed them with helpful links and resources.
Plan your acceptance speech. On the flip side, you are pretty great. There is a reason why the client or the company responded to you in the first place. So prepare for the email you want by outlining what you’ll say to them and detail the SPECIFIC next steps. If you’re a freelancer this is especially important.
Get off the computer and perform some stretching exercises. Real exercises. You’ve just spend a large chunk of time with a keyboard as an extension of your limbs. You’ll be on it again tomorrow and the day after and the day after that. Let your poor body rest. Carpal tunnel is ugly.
Play Pacman. Do I even need to explain why? If you can access the original Super Mario Bros. series, even better. Just do something you really enjoy that doesn’t involve your computer or iPhone. The only way time will pass until that email finally comes is if you immerse yourself in so much fun that you momentarily forget about your email, you hard-working maniac.
No comments:
Post a Comment