If you are working with a recruiter, they will be expected to contact the client and follow up after the interview. Often the decision process is quicker this way as the client will talk candidly with the recruiter. Recruiters know how to manage expectations and will keep you informed as to the progress of your application. If you have applied direct, however, you’ll need to wait until the whole process is complete before you know how you did.

The three usual outcomes are either a rejection, an invitation to move to the next part of the process, or an offer.

Unsuccessful

Nobody likes being rejected, but we aren’t all the ideal candidate for every job. The interviewer has looked carefully at the applicants available and made a selection based on suitability for the role. Not every round of interviews leads to an offer and sometimes none of the candidates make the grade for one reason or another. But normally it’s simply that there was someone else who fit the bill better than you did.

It’s good to get feedback, but frustratingly, it’s not guaranteed that every interviewer will offer more than a simple ‘unsuccessful’. However, if you have gone through a recruiter, they will push hard for feedback – firstly so you can understand why you didn’t get the role and address any issues if they were raised, so that your next interview is better. Secondly, the recruiter themselves will use the feedback to fine tune their own pre-selection of candidates.

Invitation to the next stage

Some roles can’t be assessed in just one interview.

After the first interview, the original interviewees may be reduced to a shortlist. These can be for a variety of reasons. Some might be:

• The initial interview was to reduce the pool of applicants to a number where the interviewer can allocate more time to each person in order to be more thorough.
• Candidates are put forward to a skills assessment.
• Final decision between the top candidates needs to be made by a more senior person than the original interviewer.
• The company offers the candidates the opportunity for an on-the-job assessment.

In these and other scenarios, the shortlist is normally cut to two or three applicants. By this time you will know more about the company, so prepare using that knowledge and take all of the precautions that you did for the first interview to give yourself the best chance.

Offer

Great news – the employer wants to offer you the role!

Once you get the offer, there are a number of things you’ll need to check before you accept.

Go through the offer carefully. A verbal offer is great but you need it in writing. Don’t give your notice in until you are completely happy with the terms of the offer. Once you have handed your notice in, there is no going back.

Is the salary on offer acceptable? If the offer is less than you expected, then feel free to try to negotiate. If you are working with a recruiter, they will try to do it for you. But unless the job is more involved than the original spec, don’t try to increase the salary above the range at which it was advertised, or ask for more than you originally indicated you would accept.

If negotiating the salary offered, start by saying that you are really pleased to receive the offer, but that financially you would be more comfortable if the salary was at a slightly higher level. The company may counter with an offer of an increase after a set period of time, subject to good performance. Unless you are expecting to fail, it’s a good compromise and well worth considering.

Is the benefits package acceptable? Things like holiday entitlement, pension contributions etc. tend to be negotiated company wide and are rarely negotiable on an individual basis.

You can ask to see a copy of the contract, or even the company handbook if the contract refers to it. Make sure you are happy with everything before you make the final decision. If you are working with a recruiter, they can negotiate all of this on your behalf.

Handing in your notice

Once you have decided to accept the role, you will need to hand in your notice. Never go in all guns blazing – you will need a decent reference and you never know if you will meet your old colleagues / employer later on in your career. The letter doesn’t need to be a long one. You can download a letter of resignation template from our website on our resources page .