What to Do After Your Consulting or Finance Job Interview

Whew! You made it. Wait until you walk out of the firm's elevator bank or your school's career center; then you can at last take a deep breath, relax and enjoy the rest of the day. Then, start thinking about the next steps in the interview process.

Confirm the next steps in the interview process

If you just finished an interview round on campus, you probably already know the next steps (the firm's recruiter will call you Thursday, you will get an e-mail with the results, etc.). If you interviewed outside of the school's official recruiting cycles, or if you just finished final round interviews at the firm's office downtown, you will want to get some expectation of when you will hear the results. The easiest thing to do is to remember to ask the recruiting manager (likely not one of your interviewers) on the way out the door. If you forget, you can simply send an email or give the recruiting contact a call the next day to confirm.

Thank your interviewers

Good form includes sending a thank-you note to your interviewers. This can be a very short message that thanks the interviewer for his or her time, reminds the person of one or two key items that you discussed, and reiterates why you are sincerely interested in the firm. Mention a couple of discussion points from the interview, because the interviewers speak to so many candidates that they will appreciate the teasers you send to refresh their memory (and will likely make you stand out in their minds). A letter or thank-you note used to be the way to go, but these days, an e-mail to the interviewer works fine. Send the thank-you note no later than the day after the interview.

Waiting for the job offer

Perhaps the most stressful time of the entire process is after all the interviews, waiting to see if you got the job or not. Realize that at this point you've done all you can, and the decision is now fully out of your hands. You might as well enjoy the fact that you don't have to worry about this firm for a little while. So what do you do when the agreed-upon day of reckoning comes, and there's no phone call? This will happen from time to time. Be patient. Wait a day, then call your recruiting contact to find out where you stand. A call works better than an email, because it is more personal and reminds the firm that you are waiting on pins and needles.

--From the 2010 Vault Guide to Consulting Careers by Laura Walker Chung, Eric Chung and the staff at Vault