Making the Decision and Beginning Work
Almost the worst part of being unemployed is being on tenterhooks after you've had one or several interviews that seemed favorable. You want to get back to work. Remaining unemployed is too emotionally draining. But until the job offer is in hand, you can't let down. You must continue to look and not put all your eggs in one basket. How will you deal with the disappointment if the offer you're depending on doesn't materialize? The situation is a little like the favorite vaudeville saying: "It isn't over until the fat lady sings." In this instance, the "fat lady" is the job offer and your acceptance.
You can you get the "fat lady" to sing earlier? Let's say you just completed one or several interviews with a company. You haven't received a job offer yet, but you know the interviewer was interested.
Can you do anything to push for the offer without seeming pushy. Yes.
You have several options, all of which fall in the area of "asking for the job."
Write an enthusiastic letter. Tell the interviewer how impressed you were with the company. Tell him/her that you're "raring to go." You really are interested in the job.
Telephone the interviewer every five to 10 working days. (If you can't reach them, leave a message with the secretary.) Explain who you are. Tell who you are and that after the interview, you really think you are the right person for the job. You're calling to see if a decision has been made. If not, when will it be made? If you have had to leave a message, you may not get an immediate return call. If your call isn't returned, at least you've left the message that you are interested.
According to Marilyn Moats Kennedy managing partner of Career Strategies in Wilmette, Illinois:
When you're told that someone will be in touch, don't wait for them to call. Call every five to 10 working days...Don't apologize for calling or suggest that you're being a nuisance. You are a serious job hunter and seriously interested in the job. Write a letter. Restate your interest in the job, desire to work for the company and belief you can make a contribution. Give some examples based on your observations during on-site interviews. Don't assume that unless you're invited back, you're out.
Consider how tedious and time-consuming interviews are from the other side of the desk. Persistent, low-pressure wooing works best... Re-contact the company by telephone or letter every 10 days, probably every other Friday....The longer the delay, the more likely some of your competition will evaporate. Six weeks from now, you may be the only remaining candidate-if you have the patience to wait that long...But while you're looking, following up isn't wasted time.
If your interview was arranged by an agency, follow-up with the counselor. Ask to talk with the counselor, either in person or on the telephone as a debriefing. Tell him or her, the full results of the interview. Then, follow up with the employer yourself.
You'll know a company is serious when it asks for your references and begins to check them.
Evaluating the Job Offer
An employer (or two or three) makes you a job offer. Before you say, "Fine, I accept and will start immediately," seriously evaluate the firm, the offer and the match between you and them. Is this job really what you want? Or are you accepting it because you're desperate? Invariably, if you accept a job for the latter reason, you'll be back on the street again within a year because you don't fit them or they don't fit you.
How well do you fit the job characteristics? If you can get a job description or a copy of the job requisition from the person who offered you the job, "What Kind of Job Should You Search For?" and make an estimate of the various job characteristics using the Position Concept Form. Score the form and compare the profile of the offered job with the profile of the one you said you wanted. Also, check the position profile of the job with your own communications style (the Public Concept profile you completed). What problems might you have?
Find out everything you can about the job. Do some additional research on the company, using the resources, "Finding Out Where the Jobs Are." What would your duties be, who would you report to, what is the work climate? If you know someone who works there, ask some discreet questions about general conditions at the firm. Ask knowledgeable people in the community-bankers, lawyers, stockbrokers-about the company's general reputation. Try to do as much cross-checking as you can. If the answers vary widely, be careful.
Check out what you've learned about the job with what you learned about yourself. Would it require some skills you don't have or require that you upgrade existing skills? Would it play to your weaknesses instead of your strengths? Is it a detail job or a broad-picture job? (Which are you-a detail person or a broad-picture person?) Would you be working with things or with people? Which do you do best? Do you have the necessary background and experience to do the job well without a long learning period?
Will the job give you the satisfactions you require? How does each offer you've received stack up against the criteria you developed earlier in your job search? Up to the time of the offer, you were selling yourself. Now, you're being sold to. Don't buy a lemon. Take the time to really think about the job. Photocopy the checklist. Cross out any items that don't pertain to the job and add any other criteria that are important to the job.
Then evaluate the job in relation to the criteria. Look at each criterion and make a judgment about its importance to the job. In column 1, rate it a 5 if that characteristic of the job is extremely high, a 4 if it's high, 3 if it's average, 2 or 1 if it is low. After you have rated the job, go back over the list. Decide which of these factors is especially important to you-would, in fact, be a critical factor. In the second column, rate the importance of that factor to you on the same 1 to 5 scale. Then compare your responses about yourself with your responses about the job in column 1. If any of the scores in this column were low-say 1 or 2, and you have rated this factor a 5, it is a -. That part of the job doesn't meet your criteria. Have you rated each critical item a 4 or 5? If you have more than one critical factor that's rated 3 or less, don't accept the position.
Should you have more than one offer, you do the same kind of scoring on each position. If you don't have any serious de-selectors, then you complete your rating of the other characteristics, and do a weighted score for that job. Multiply the job rating in column 1 times the importance rating in column 2. Place the answer in column 3. After you have scored all the factors for the position, sum the responses in column 3. Repeat the scoring with the second position (and the third, if you're so lucky.) Then compare the scores for each offer. You'll have a combination quantitative/qualitative measure that will be of more value than just your intuition. The job with the highest score should be the one you accept.
Keep in mind that the most significant factor of your performance on the job is apt to be your boss. If you have any reservations about this person-does he or she play by the rules, will your personalities clash, do your work styles mesh - -think long and hard about accepting the position. You may have been made an offer you can't refuse. But if the chemistry just isn't there, you may not last on the job-or worse yet, you'll stay and be miserable.
