Interview Thank You Letters
It is common practice to follow up an interview with a brief letter, thanking the employer for their time and once again expressing your interest in the position. As well as reinforcing your business-like approach and organizational skills, putting your name in front of the employer is an added reminder of your interview. The employer will also almost certainly appreciate the courtesy. In a tight decision between candidates, this little extra detail may just help you to edge out the competition.
Dealing with Rejection
While it would be nice to think that every interview will result in a job offer, you must deal with the fact that you may be rejected. Most companies issue rejections after they have secured the services of another individual, just in case their first choice candidate elects not to accept the offer.
If the rejection comes in the form of a letter, there is likely to be very little that you can do to ascertain the reason for the rejection. If you are fortunate enough to receive a phone call, the employer may be willing to discuss with you the reasons for the rejection. Whatever the reasoning, take note. Knowing what the employer sees as a negative can help you in your further job search.
If you are notified by email, it is probably not a great idea to reply and ask why you were rejected. Rather send a courtesy reply with a brief note thanking them for their consideration and reinforcing the fact that you are interested in any other opportunities that come up in the future.
Comparing Offers
If you are fortunate enough to find yourself in a situation where you have more than one job offer, congratulations. What you must do is to sit down and carefully consider the relative merits of each opportunity. As well as considering the obvious factors such as salary, location, and working environment, you can now add some other things into the mix. The difference that each of these factors makes in the long term is difficult to quantify, but they are worth considering:
- Possibilities for advancement-If your plan is to stay with a company for a significant period of time, considering what opportunities there are for advancement can be an important factor. The size of the company may have an influence on this, but it should not be the only condition. Small companies may grow rapidly and often promote from within. If advancement is important to you, ascertain this fact during the interview.
- The technologies in use-As discussed elsewhere in this article, the key to retaining your marketability in the IT industry is focused on your skills and how applicable they are to the market. To have the opportunity of working in an environment where you have access to the latest and greatest technologies and products will make it easy to stay ahead of the game.
- Gut feeling-Not very scientific perhaps, but in reality you are likely to have a feeling as to which of the offers represents the best opportunity. Sometimes it is better to go with your heart than your head.
To talk of negotiation when you are looking for a way to break into the IT industry may seem a little odd. Surely, you should just take what you can get? You may convince yourself in the beginning that working for poor pay and no benefits is okay as you are getting the ever valuable experience, but this will wear thin after a short time. It is far better to negotiate a package that both parties are happy with. It may mean that you will be paid low wages to begin with, but after an agreed period your wages will increase. In essence, the negotiation in this respect may not be about what you want now, but rather what you will get in the future.
That is not to say that there is no room for negotiation over things such as salary, only that the room may be a little limited. The exact amount of room depends greatly on the employer. Some employers work on a principle of paying employees the least they can while paying them enough to discourage them from leaving. Others, though not enough, work on a principle of paying them market rate, thereby giving them no monetary reason to look elsewhere. Of course, pay in this context does not just refer to salary, but extends to things such as benefits and bonuses as well.
The negotiation of a job offer is different from the other negotiations that you may undergo in life. If you have bought or sold a car, house, or if you have held a garage sale, you may have been involved in a negotiation. The difference with those negotiations was that if the purchaser didn't want to buy, someone else likely would. When looking for a job for the first time buyers may be hard to find.
