The interview finishes at 11:30am. By noon, some parents have already drafted a follow-up email they want their child to send. By 2pm, they are wondering whether to call the company directly. By 4pm, they have decided the interview went badly based on a two-minute debrief in the car.
The debrief that becomes a dissection
Asking your child how it went is reasonable. Spending an hour pulling apart every answer they gave, suggesting what they should have said differently, and rating their performance out of ten is not. Rory came home from a strong pharmacy technician interview and spent the evening being told he should have mentioned his science grade earlier in the conversation. He went to bed convinced he had failed.
Contacting the employer directly
This happens. Parents call or email companies to ask about timelines, to advocate for their child, or to provide additional information. Recruitment teams notice. It raises immediate questions about the candidate's independence, which is often a core requirement of the role itself.
The waiting period is part of the process
Following any news information portal covering graduate hiring will show you that response times vary enormously. A week of silence means nothing. Two weeks means nothing. Pushing your child to follow up before the stated timeline makes them look impatient rather than keen.
The interview is over. Your job now is to be calm, not to manage the outcome.