I got an email from Lana Hayes, a “Proposal Manager” in Maryland. It’s a great question and she said I could share my response with you 🙂 She writes:
The week before the holidays I met with a Regional Manager and Project Manager for an interview. It seemed to have gone well.
Before I went to the interview I was unaware about a 30/60/90 action plan to take until I went to a job seminar. Over the past week I have been working on said action plan. Now my question is, should I forward it to the gentlemen? I have already sent both a thank you email. If so, how would you word the email about why are you submitting it late?
Have you heard of the 30/60/90 day action plan? I have heard of it, as a job search strategy. I think it’s a good idea, not necessarily critical in every interview, but it could be a great differentiating tool. Lana blogs about it here.
Lana’s question… she already interviewed… when does she send the action plan to them? Should she do it via email?
I would recommend she NOT email them the action plan.
What she could do is send a followup communication (email, letter, card, fax, etc.) with the normal stuff (thank you, etc.) and let the interviewer(s) know she developed the 30/60/90 day action plan. She might have to educate them a little on what that means (see my post on Connecting The Dots here)… she might even include a snippet of it, but I would not include the entire thing.
Instead, I’d say something like “I would love to share my plan with you in the next round of interviews.”
Quick note: I’m on a list of PR professionals and they complain that when they share an awesome plan, sometimes they don’t get the job but the company uses their plan anyway. There is always the danger of this. Are you okay with that?
I am… my thoughts: showing a plan is one thing (and yes, quite valuable)… the value YOU bring to the table is that you can EXECUTE on the plan.
What do you think? When should Lana show them the plan? Am I right or wrong? What would you do?
When I was interviewing at GE to fill a new position in the Career Transition Center created due to a plant closing, I interviewed a person who did not have what I considered the necessary background. I had not expected to bring her in for a second interview; however, she sent a thank you card with a note that said “I have been waking up at night thinking about how to handle….” – a problem I had mentioned in the interview. Well, let me tell you, I had many challenges and I wanted someone else waking up at night. She was hired and did an exceptional job. Perhaps knowing that an interviewee has a plan could have the same effect, especially if the message connects it to the conversation. (I appreciated that she not only heard what I said, but understood the significance of it.)