The Post-Interview Checklist

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

Here’s a checklist of things to do after an interview.

Career Coach Office Hours: March 11 2025

Hi, I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. And this is another video that I’m doing about interviewing that I think will be very helpful to you. Now, most of the time, when I and other people do videos about interviewing, we talk about either the preparation for the interview or the process of the interview and how to answer questions better, how to be more effective in the room, etc.

 But there’s a part that takes place after the interview that I think gets neglected. And everyone knows about thank you letters. But I don’t think that’s really the first place to start.

See, after the interview, what I want you to do is when you get back to your computer, I want you to sit down and write down a couple of notes. And the first question I want you to answer for yourself is, why do you think you can do this job? Again, this is for yourself. It’s going to give you some . . . well, I’ll get to that later.

So, the first question to answer is, why do you think you can do this job? Why do you think you might want this job is number two. Number three is, what about the position or the firm is attractive or interesting to you? What red flags came up as a result of the interview? And what questions do you still want answered? (1:31) Lastly, and this is like a conclusion, do you want to continue interviewing for this position? (1:38) Now, I don’t want you to start at the end. I really want you to go through the individual steps.

I’m going to repeat now. Why do you think you can do the job? Why do you think you want the job? What about the company or position is attractive to you? What red flags came up during the interview? What questions do you still want answered? (2:00) And, lastly, why do you think you can do the job? Why do you think you might want the position or the firm is attractive to you? What red flags came up during the interview? What questions do you still want answered? (2:30) Let’s say you get to the offer stage and you have multiple choices. Well, you can go through the process of reviewing your answers to each of these questions for each firm and what’s taken place afterwards.

Again, not just after a first interview, but after a second interview, after a third interview, you do this process. So, this way, everything is fresh. It’s a reference point for you and you can move on.

Now, again, I do want you to send thank you letters that are really very simple. A thank you letter is just going to basically be an email that starts by thanking them for making time to meet with them, meet with you, talking about your interest in the position, reviewing what you learned and how your background matches up to it, and indicating that you’re interested in moving ahead for the next step.

Now, in reviewing your answers to these questions, the last one is, do you want to continue interviewing for this position? I want you to keep doing that one more round if you have no’s to all these questions.

And the reason is, you may have missed on something. You may be confused about something and the next meeting will clarify it. Don’t close doors on this round.

Close them after the next round if you’re still not satisfied.

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