A significant part of a managers day is following people up. This is especially so in property development and business development.
The ability to extract what you need – whether its confirmation from a client on new business or a report you have commissioned from a consultant to meet a deadline – is a core skill. It is usually fairly simple, just a note or a phone call to check-in and see how things are going. Possibly a little less pressure and more subtle when you are asking of your client, and conversely more pressure where you are the client asking of others whom you are paying. I have found to get things done, prompt follow up is critically important.
So I see the ability to proactively follow up as one of the fundamental responsibilities of a good development manager.
In recent years I have interviewed a large number of people for roles. The roles are not limited to generation smartphone (or whatever the suffix is nowadays) and are typically highly competitive with a range of candidates in age and experience.
Hopefully I am not getting too old and out of touch with common day communication techniques but I find it interesting to note that there is almost no direct follow up from candidates anymore.
Possibly some follow ups are taken by recruiters and never passed on, but there is nothing stopping a candidate emailing me direct – they all get a business card and are never told not to contact me.
It is so rare to receive a follow up note from as interviewee; yes one who still does actually want the job after the interview! Rarer still is the candidate who follows up the same day as the interview, and then keeps in contact with further follow ups (which can range from asking ‘how the selection process is going’ to emailing something that may pique my interest like an innovative property trend from overseas or the like).
I just googled ‘follow up job’ and number one on the search list was this article, so I am at a bit of a loss why there is so little follow up.
http://jobsearch.about.com/b/2013/12/19/how-to-follow-up-on-a-job.htm
For something so simple, candidates who follow up proactively and directly, stick themselves well above the pack. Yes you may be the bees knees and think employers should be following you up not the other way round, but following up after an interview has made the difference to getting the job or not.
Following up is after all one of the things a successful candidate is going to be doing an extreme amount of when they work in property or business development.