What To Do With A Stalled Job Interview Process

A Job Candidate’s Situation:

A recuiter called a medical sales candidate about a job, gave him the name of the company and the manager, said that he had submitted his resume for consideration, and had the phone interview set up. Then, the recruiter called back to tell him that the phone interview wasn’t going to happen, that the interview was on hold, and that he’d be in touch. After more than a week with no phone call, the candidate called me for help.

A Medical Sales Recruiter’s Advice:

This candidate should contact the hiring manager directly. If the recruiter has already submitted him to the company, and he approaches the company in a VERY professional way, then I don’t think a recruiter would be upset by that. I know I certainly wouldn’t be. Contacting the company to make sure the job didn’t go dead shows the candidate’s guts, determination, follow-through, and that he cares about the job (all desirable qualities to have in a medical sales candidate). The candidate must have been close enough to the job for it to work out, so it’s not like it would be a shot in the dark. He found the manager on LinkedIn, so I advised him to write a nice note to the manager on LinkedIn, saying something along the lines of “So-and-so submitted my resume for such-and-such opportunity and I’m so excited about it. I know we’re on hold right now for the phone interview, but I just wanted to let you know that it looks like a position I could really excel at, and where I could provide some value for you and I’d like to chat with you about it as soon as possible.”

See? It’s polite and professional, but shows positive go-getter qualities about this candidate that will almost certainly get the attention of a hiring manager.