Signs You Will Get the Job After an Interview

After your final interview, you may not hear back right away about a job offer. The hiring manager may need to wrap up interviewing any additional final candidates to decide who will be the best fit, or meet with their team to get everyone's feedback about the different candidates, or work with human resources to determine the exact salary they plan to offer.

Waiting to hear back can be stressful, especially if you're particularly excited about the opportunity. While it can be difficult to say what the outcome will be, there can sometimes be signs indicating that you'll get the job after an interview. Let's review some of those, as well as what you can keep doing while you wait to hear back.

One thing could be continuing to strengthen your skill set. Generative AI (GenAI) is a high-income skill that's only growing in demand across professions. While you wait to hear back about a job offer, invest in the future of your skills by learning how to work with GenAI to craft clearer emails, tackle complex projects, and unlock key insights with the Google Prompting Essentials course.

How to tell if an interview went well

Before you conclude the final interview and begin the waiting period, it's possible to get a sense for how your interviews have gone with the different people—hiring managers, potential team members, leaders—you've met along the way. Consider these common signs you may get the job after an interview.

1. Interviewer body language

You can learn a lot from someone’s body language. People’s nonverbal cues play a critical role in communication. On a basic level, we know that if someone is smiling at you, it is positive, and if the interviewer is frowning, they are likely unimpressed or disagree with what you’re saying. 

If your interviewer sits upright and faces you, leans in, smiles, nods, and makes eye contact, you can take these as positive signs. Similarly, an interviewer who seems distracted, fidgets, and points their body away from you may need to be more engaged and interested in the conversation. However, it’s important to remember that body language isn’t the only sign that indicates a successful job interview.

2. Length of interview

If your interview runs longer than scheduled, it’s usually a sign that the interviewer wanted to learn more about you and probed you for more information. Unless something out of the ordinary occurred, it can also indicate that you had plenty to say and could answer questions thoroughly, which can be a positive. 

3. Interviewer attentiveness

Interviewer attentiveness is another positive sign during the interview. You receive the interviewer’s full attention if they ask you extra questions, prompt you to elaborate on answers, and engage with you.

If the conversation flows naturally and you build rapport with the interviewer, it shows that you have some chemistry and that the interviewer likes you as a person. It can also be a sign that your skills and experience impress them. Likely, an interviewer will also consider whether you will fit with their team and if you have the necessary qualifications to do the job. 

4. Getting to know you more personally

If your interviewer shows an interest in you beyond your experience and skills, it may be that they're trying to get a sense of how you'll fit, personality-wise, on their team. As much as companies want to hire talented, experienced professionals, they also want to make sure every new hire will be a good addition to the team's culture and the company's culture. Take it as a good sign if your interviewer spends a few moments asking more about who you are as a person (in addition to your professional background).  

5. Reviewing next steps

If the interviewer starts explaining what you can expect moving forward, it can be a good sign at the end of an interview. An interview that didn’t go well is unlikely to include a rundown of the next steps, such as a second interview, notice periods, references, and transition steps.

6. Introductions to other employees

Being introduced to other staff members or being offered a tour may be standard, but an employer will unlikely extend this offer to everyone due to time constraints. Meeting employees can be a way of determining whether you are a good fit for the organization. Generally, this step means your answers and job interview skills have impressed, and now they want to see if you fit into their company culture. 

7. Discussions about salary expectations

Many interviews now begin with a phone screen, where a recruiter generally provides an overview of the job and discusses the salary range to ensure it's in keeping with what you're seeking. Once you've made it to the final round of interviews, if a hiring manager brings up salary expectations, it could be a good sign that they're getting serious about offering you the job. They'll need to work with the budgeting team to finalize a job offer, and they'll want to know more specifically about each candidate's expectations.

Signs you may get the job after the interview              

If you’re still unsure whether the job is yours following your last interview, you can watch for additional signs.  

1. Responding quickly to your thank-you email

Sending a post-interview thank-you email is good practice. It shows professionalism and your enthusiasm for the role, while helping keep you in mind, but you’re not guaranteed a reply. If an employer responds quickly to your email, you can take it as an indication that you are on their mind and they want to keep you engaged and interested. They likely don’t want to lose you. 

2. Asking about notice periods

Rest assured, being asked about notice periods and availability is unlikely to happen if you are not at least being considered for the job. A recruiter taking the time to call or email you to find out this information is extremely positive. 

3. Scheduling a follow-up interview

It doesn't always happen once all candidates have made it through the final round, but a hiring manager may sometimes request one last follow-up interview if they're having trouble deciding. If you're asked to meet with the hiring manager or team again, it can be a good sign that you're a strong contender for an offer.  

4. Checking your references

Contacting your references is time-consuming, so recruiters only do this for candidates who have successfully completed a job interview and who they are seriously considering. Employers may ask you for your references during the interview, but they will only contact them if you are a top candidate with a real chance of being offered the job. 

Read more: Should You List References on a Resume?

When should you follow up after a final interview?

The wait to hear back about a job offer after an interview can be anything from a few hours to a few weeks. Let's review three key pieces of timing that you'll want to keep in mind:

• During the final interview: When it's your turn to ask questions at the end of the interview, it's a good idea to ask about the timing of next steps. This can be as simple as, "What are the next steps?" or "What's your timeline moving forward?" The answer will provide you with helpful details about when to send your last follow-up, which we'll get to momentarily.

• 24 hours after the interview: Shortly after your final interviews, it's good practice to send a thank-you email to the hiring manager and any team members you've met with throughout the process. This is an opportunity to once again express your enthusiasm for the role, what impact you feel you'd bring, and stay top-of-mind.

• Two weeks after the final interview: If you haven’t heard anything within about two weeks, sending a follow-up to the recruiter or hiring manager (whomever you've been in touch with about the interview process most) is standard practice. At this point, you can ask about when you might expect to hear anything. Keep in mind that two weeks is a general rule of thumb. If during your final interview, you were told that you'd hear back within a different time period (a few days, one week, or later) then you'll want to send your follow-up a few days after that initial timeline has passed.

Read more: How to Get a Job: 10 Effective Tips to Land Your Next Role

What to do while you're waiting to hear back about a job

The common wisdom when interviewing is to not focus too closely on any one role. In other words, do your best when interviewing and then keep applying to other openings until you have a firm offer in hand. While you're waiting, consider the following options:

1. Keep applying to other jobs.

Until you have a firm job offer, it's smart to keep applying for other jobs—and take an interview if you're contacted for one. Review the resources below to strengthen your application materials and stand out as a job candidate.

• 10 Ways to Improve Your Resume

• 150 Resume Action Words

• How to Write a Cover Letter

• How to Prepare for an Interview

• Zoom Interview Tips

2. Develop your skill set.

One way to strengthen your resume is by expanding your skill set—either learning a new in-demand skill, strengthening a key technical skill, or earning a certificate or credential to show the extra steps you took to formalize your knowledge in an area.

Look over the list of high-income skills we've compiled and consider which one might be beneficial to add to your wheelhouse. Not sure where to start? GenAI is the most in-demand skill, according to a recent survey from Upwork [1]. Learn more about how to use GenAI in your job.

3. Focus on an activity or hobby you enjoy.

Spend some time, both mentally and physically, away from your job search. Invest in yourself by doing an activity you enjoy, and which will hopefully take your mind off waiting to hear back about a job offer. A job search and the resulting interview processes can be demanding, so it's important to restore your energy as much as you can by doing things you enjoy.

Keep strengthening your skill set with Coursera

Congratulations on making it to the final round of interviews. That in and of itself is a significant accomplishment. As you're waiting to hear back about a job offer, it's best to keep applying for other opportunities—and to use your time productively. Strengthen your skill set with important GenAI skills that you can add to your resume and bring up in any future interviews you may do.

• Get comfortable with the technology through DeepLearning.AI's Generative AI for Everyone. Over three courses, you'll learn what generative AI is, how it works, its common use cases, and what this technology can and cannot do.

• Develop foundational prompting skills with Google Prompting Essentials. In four courses, you'll learn how to effectively prompt a GenAI chatbot as well as prompting techniques to help you with everyday work tasks.

• Advance your prompting abilities with Vanderbilt's Advanced Prompt Engineering for Everyone. Over five courses, you'll learn how to integrate retrieval systems with generative models to provide more precise and informed responses, among other key skills.