how to follow up after your interview

If you haven't followed up after your interview, you should. Here's how to follow up well:

* Send a thank-you note immediately. E-mail is fine for this and has the advantage of arriving faster, but handwritten notes are still appreciated (and are increasingly unusual so will stand out). And if there are multiple interviews, send a thank-you note each time.

* Find out their timeline. Hopefully, you asked about their timeline in the interview itself, but if you didn't, follow up within a week to reinforce your interest and politely ask what they expect their timeline for a decision to be.

* Be enthusiastic—but not desperate. Most commonly, job seekers are too worried about looking desperate. It doesn't look desperate to express your interest in the job or check in to ask about the timeline. However, enthusiasm does cross the line if you are calling more than once a week, calling earlier than the date they said they'd get back to you, sounding like you're eager to take any job as opposed to this one in particular, or appearing as if this is the only option you have. (And if you do truly feel desperate, ask yourself what a candidate who felt confident about having sufficient options but was particularly interested in this position would do—and do that.)

* Don't be alarmed if you don't hear from them immediately. The hiring process often takes longer than a candidate would like, for all sorts of reasons—the decision makers are out of town, scheduling conflicts have delayed a final interview, or the company bureaucracy that is required to finalize an offer takes time to work through (not necessarily a great sign about the work environment, but that's a different topic), and so forth. Nerve-wracking, yes, but don't read too much into it.

* When you don't hear back after they said you would, politely follow up, explain you're very interested but understand that hiring can take time, and ask if they have an updated timeline. It's completely legitimate to ask this; employers assume you have other balls in the air and need to be able to plan.

If you've gone through all the steps above and still haven't heard anything, then you're being treated rudely. (But not until then.)

At this point, be more explicit, saying something like, "Would you let me know when you expect to be making decisions? I'm extremely interested in the position, but I'm talking with other companies as well, and hope to get a better sense of your timeline." If you don't hear anything back after that, mentally move on—that's really all you can do. If they resurface in a month with an offer, you'll have to evaluate at that point whether it's even a company you want to work for. And if they don't—well, perhaps bullet dodged.