Today is Data Day: Ziggeo’s Data Suggests Candidates Do Better When They Wait to Be Contacted

Surprisingly, it turns out that waiting patiently after submitting a recorded video interview might be the smartest approach.

Our data at Ziggeo suggests that that candidates who waited for employers to follow up with them after videos were submitted received higher ratings from employers than candidates who contacted employers first.

As the following chart shows, for example, 94% of all candidates who received relatively low ratings (i.e., only two out of five stars) started the post-video submission conversation with the interviewer before being contacted by the interviewer:

Here's the raw data:

(Read: Rating | Candidate Initiating Conversation | Interviewer Initiating Conversation)

• 1 Star   | 91% | 9%
• 2 Stars | 94% | 6%
• 3 Stars | 63% | 37%
• 4 Stars | 53% | 47%
• 5 Stars | 47% | 53%

Note that out of all conversations, 71% were initiated by candidates vs. 29% that were initiated by employers.

Does this mean that candidates shouldn’t send employers follow-up thank-you messages and should instead wait (with fingers crossed) for the employer to contact them after the video submission?

With apologies to Miss Manners, the answer appears to be yes. Even though a post-submission note might seem like common courtesy, it could just boomerang.

Whether you call it “playing hard to get” or not being a pest, the best approach seems to be patience.

 

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Ziggeo lets you quickly and easily pre-screen candidates by watching their videos. Candidates simply record short videos of themselves for your own private viewing.