During each meeting, you have taken up the time of someone who sincerely tried to help you. Writing a note is the only polite thing to do. Since the person has gone to some effort for you, go to some effort in return. A phone call to thank a person can be an intrusion, and shows no effort on your part. Make some effort.
In addition to being polite, there are good business reasons for writing notes and otherwise keeping in touch with people who have helped you. For one thing, hardly anyone does it, so you will stand out. Second, it gives you a chance to sell yourself again and to overcome any misunderstandings that may have occurred. Third, this is a promotional campaign, and any good promoter knows that a message reinforced soon after a first message results in added recall.
If you meet someone through a networking interview, for example, she will almost certainly forget about you the minute you leave. She will go back to her business. Sorry, but you were an interruption.
If you write to people almost immediately after your meeting, this will dramatically increase the chance that they will remember you. If you had waited two weeks before writing, they may remember meeting someone, but not remember you specifically. If you waited longer than two weeks, they probably won't remember meeting anyone let alone that it was you.
Promptly follow the interview with a note. It is important to remind those to whom you write who you are, when they talked to you, and some highlight of the meeting. Contact them again within a month or two. It is just like an advertising campaign. Advertisers will often place their ads every four weeks in the same publication, but rarely less often than that because of the drop in how many people remember the ad.
What Michael Did
This is a classic and it worked on me. I wanted to hire one junior accountant for a very important project, and had the search narrowed down to two people. I asked my boss for his input. We made up a list of what we were looking for and we each rated the candidates on twenty criteria. The final scores came in very close, but I hired Judy instead of Michael.
In response to my rejection, Michael wrote me a note telling me how much he still wanted to work for our company, and how he hoped I would keep him in mind if something else should come up. He turned the rejection into a positive contact. Notes are so unusual, and this one was so personable, that I showed it to my boss.
A few months later, Michael wrote again saying that he had taken a position with another firm. He was still very much interested in us, and he hoped to work for us someday. He promised to keep in touch, which he did. Each time he wrote, I showed the note to my boss. Each time, we were sorry we couldn't hire him.
After about seven months, I needed another helping hand. Whom do you think I called? Do you think I interviewed other people? Do you think I had to sell Michael to my boss? Michael came to work for us, and we never regretted it. Persistence pays off.
What To Say In Your Follow Up Note
This kind of follow up may sometimes be more informal than a follow up to a job interview. Depending on the content of your note, you may type or write it. Generally use standard business size stationery, but sometimes Monarch or other note size stationery, ivory or white will do. A job interview follow up should almost always be typed on standard business size ivory or white stationery.
After an information gathering interview, play back some of the advice you received, any you intend to follow, and so on. Simply be sincere. What did you appreciate about the time the person spent with you? Did you get good advice that you intend to follow? Say so. Were you inspired? Encouraged? Awakened? Say so.
If you think there were sparks between you and the person you met with, be sure to say that you will keep in touch. Then do it. Follow up letters don't have to be long, but they do have to be personal. Make sure the letters you write could not be sent to someone else on your list.
It's never too late to follow up. For example: "I met you a year ago and am still impressed by... Since then I have... and would be interested in getting together with you again to discuss these new developments." Make new contacts. Re contact old ones by writing a "status report" every two months of how well you are doing in your search. Keeping up with old networking contacts is as important as making new ones.
Some job hunters use this as an opportunity to write a proposal. During the meeting, you may have learned something about the company's problems. Writing a proposal to solve them may create a job for yourself. Patricia had a networking meeting with a small company where she learned that it wanted to expand the business from $5 million to $50 million. She came up with lots of ideas about how that could be done with her help, of course and called to set up a meeting to review her ideas. She went over the proposal with them, and they created a position for her.
However, you are not trying to turn every networking meeting into a job possibility. You are trying to form lifelong relationships with people. Experts say that most successful employees form steady, long term relationships with lots of people and keep in touch regularly throughout their careers. These people will keep you up to date in a changing economy, tell you about changes or openings in your field, and generally be your long term ally. And you will do the same for them.
