5 Rules of Following Up with Your Old Intern Boss

By AnaMaria Glavan

Following-up with prospective or past employers is super important (and scary). You went on an interview and think it went smoothly, then the panic begins and you start refreshing your account in five-second intervals for new emails. Or, you need a new mag gig and want to reach out to editors you’ve worked with in the past. What do you need to do? Send a follow-up email. How do you do it? By consistently following these five tips.

1. Set the Terms Yourself. 
First and foremost, do yourself a favor and before you even leave an interview, ask for an approximate decision date. Every publication will have a different time frame for when they plan on notifying their chosen candidates, depending on how many applicants they’re meeting with and when the position needs to be filled. By asking in advance, you save yourself a lot of worry and headache if you don’t hear back right away.

Similarly, ask if there are any positions open when your internship is coming to a close. See an EA got promoted? Don’t be afraid to ask your supervisor if you could be considered for the spot.

2. Try Your Best to Be Patient.
Working in the mag industry is awesome, but stressful. Alison Weinflash, editorial manager at Rolling Stone, says, “I can get really busy during the day and forget that I haven’t replied to an interviewee.”  Editors have a lot of work to get done and there’s only so much time in a day, so if they haven’t contacted you ASAP, they are most likely just swamped with work. So give them the benefit of the doubt and wait seven full days until you ping them again.

And instead of, “Hey, is the position still open?” send a note that re-instates why you want the job and why you would be good at it.

3. Don’t Be Too Cool for a Thank You Note.
After meeting someone for the first time, sending a thank you note shows common courtesy (and R-E-S-P-E-C-T!). “A thank you email should be sent the day after an interview. You’d be surprised at the amount of candidates who don’t send thank you notes. It makes the employer feel like you’re really not that interested,” says Weinflash. Also, when leaving either an internship or a job, send a thoughtful note to your supervisor that details what you learned.

Should you send a handwritten note or thank you email? Tess Koman, editorial assistant at Cosmopolitan.com, says, “A handwritten note is always appreciated, but unless it’s going to get to the person within 24 hours, I’d stick to sending an email. I would never want to risk someone thinking I didn’t bother following up with them!

4. Find a Sneaky Way In.
Use every opportunity available to stay in touch with your former editors and colleagues. For example, if you see that your former publication just redesigned the magazine, write to say that you love the new look, says Chandra Turner, founder and president of Ed2010 and executive editor of Parents. Or, if you remember that your old intern boss is an UK basketball fan, pop them a note when they win (but perhaps not when they lose!),  “Perhaps you saw your editor on the Today Show—write her and say she did a great job!,” she Turner. “Or if you saw that the magazine was nominated for an award, send a little congrats note.”

5. Make it About Them, Not You
Contacting former editors saying “Hey, I’m graduating, how are you?” is not the way to go, especially if you haven’t said boo since last summer. You don’t want the editor to think that the reason you’re contacting him/her is because you need a job. (Even though it obviously is!) “The interns who impress me the most — and have been offered spots at Cosmo — are the ones who write to me every six weeks and say, “Hey! I remember how you taught me X and I’ve been doing Y and Z at school to continue applying that to my life. Also, here are some cool stories I thought you might like! Hope you’re doing well,” Koman says.

Turner suggests sending along ideas that could be helpful to your former editor. “Perhaps  a story or news item you saw relates to a feature that you were working on before you left. You can send it with a note saying, ‘This made me think of X story, hope it’s going well! And so you know, I’m graduating in May!’ That way the editor gets something out of it. But I wouldn’t pitch them a story—just help them out with something,” says Turner. The idea is that they’ll remember you as a thoughtful and helpful junior editor—one that they would gladly hire or recommend to a friend.