5 Reasons You’re Not Getting a Second Interview
Searching for a job can be very frustrating but perhaps it is more annoying to get stuck in the first round and not get a call for the second round. If it happens once or twice, you may think that the other candidates have managed to edge you out. But in case it happens repeatedly then it is certain that you are making a few critical mistakes in the interview process due to which you are not being able to progress towards a next step. At that time it is important to find out what wrong you are doing and how you can rectify that. If you are unable to determine the exact reason of not getting the call for the second round then you must look at the following common reasons for which most of the candidates struggle to land in the follow-up interviews:
- Do not have enough preparation for the initial interview: You must have a strong resume with the appropriate skill set and the desired experience. You must research the companies where you are interviewing otherwise you are likely to give an impression to your hiring manager that you are not at all serious about the opportunity or you have not put enough effort to get hired. Many times it is seen that the candidate calls the hiring manager by the wrong name, do not know much about the company, cannot explain why he wants the job or cannot give an appropriate answer to the standard interview questions. All these are reasons that can upset up in an interview. Though there is no printable template of how to give an interview it is important to learn from the mistakes and do better next time.
- Do not send a thank-you note to the interviewer: Believe it or note thank-you note is an essential part of an interview. In the year 2017, a survey was conducted from Top Resume and it was found that 68% of hiring manager said that getting a thank-you note from the candidate influence their decision of hiring. Hence, sending a thank-you note to the recruiter either by handwritten or through email within 24 hours of the interview is very essential. It is very important to show your gratitude for giving you the chance of facing the interview. But while writing such thank-you note you must ensure that you have not done any spelling or grammatical mistakes.
- Do not follow the directions: It is very essential to follow the direction properly at every stage of the interview. You must send your resume, cover page and portfolio in a specified file format. It is important to show your interest, energy, and value. When the interview of the first round will be completed you can ask the interviewer about the expected date for the second round. In case they say that it will be conducted over the next two weeks make sure that you prepare yourself for the next round. Apart from that, you also have to ensure that you do not miss any call and no mail of the recruiter is there in the spam folder. In case you do not get a call you can follow up once and if necessary you can download a Free Printable Calendar from the Internet to ensure that you do not miss the expected date.
- Too persistent: It is good to send a thank-you note to the recruiter but make sure that it does not look like that you are stalking the hiring manager. If you see that the recruiter does not reply to your mail after sending the thank-you note and one follow-up mail it is better to let it go. You should never be too persistent and should always remember that nobody wants to work with those persons who never want to let anything go.
- Social media post is too revealing: As per a survey was done by CareerBuilder, it is found that 57% of employers do not hire the employee when they find any type of objectionable content in their social media post. So, you must remember that posting bikini photos or expressing political opinions or any other such thing in the social media network can hurt you in the job search. Hence it is always advisable to lock down your profile so that the recruiting manager can only view the work appropriate materials.