Grantham University

Thank You Notes

The Interview Isn’t Over After You Leave It

A time honored but often forgotten tradition in the interview process is the simple act of writing a thank you note to your interviewer(s).  These individually handcrafted notes addressed to all of the people you meet with at the company you interviewed with, can do wonders for increasing your chances of landing the job.

National surveys of recruiters have shown that the art of writing a thank you note has disappeared from the business world almost entirely.  Recruiters who were surveyed indicated that its disappearance can be coupled with the explosion of the Internet.  Because of the Internet’s fast food al-a-cart prevalence of online job postings, applicants can now respond to job postings in minutes.  With the click of a button an applicant can send out tens if not hundreds of job applications to businesses around the city and the globe.   This results in companies being inundated with thousands of applications for a single job.  Because of this overflow, smaller companies won’t respond to 99% of the applications they receive.  So, in an applicant’s mind, they’re thinking “If I am not going to hear back from you Mr. Employer, why should you hear back from me?”  Or to put it more bluntly, most of us are just lazy.

So if you think that way, you need to get that concept out of your mind.

There are too many positive aspects to writing a thank you note that it makes them something you just cannot ignore.  The biggest is the ability to recall the positive elements of your interview in the memory of the people you talked to after the interview has taken place.  Thereby differentiating yourself from all of the other applicants that may have responded in a positive and memorable way.

In addition to this, writing a thank you note does the following:

1. It allows you (the interviewee) to be seen as considerate of the time and effort that went into the setting up and running the interview.
2. It gives you the opportunity to re-cap the major positive aspects of your interview and remind the interviewer(s), in writing, about you and why you would be the perfect candidate for the job.
3. It gives you a chance to deflect or mitigate any problems that took place during your interview and dispel them in a concise and informative way.
4. Most importantly, it gives you a chance to remain visible to the interviewer(s) by having one more, appreciated, contact with them.

If you couple those positive elements with the fact that you may be the only one writing a thank you note to the interviewer(s), how could you not write and send one?

Here are some simple rules to follow for writing a thank you note that will be appreciated and welcomed.

1. During your interview make sure that you collect business cards from all of the people you meet. This will help insure accurate spellings of names and assignment of titles, and in addition, you will have accurate contact info as well i.e. correct e-mail address’s (if your interviewer does not have their card with them write down their contact info and quickly review it with them before you start your interview discussion).
2. Make sure you take notes during each interview so you can remember what was said and to whom, and quickly incorporate them into your note.
3. Be positive throughout your note, do not dwell on any negatives that took place during the discussions and if you are trying to explain away any problems that arose during your talk, do so quickly and move on.
4. Keep your thank you note brief, no more than 3 paragraphs. Remember, this is supposed to be just a thank you note, not a restatement of your application or resume.
5. Before you start writing your note, think of what you want to accomplish. You may want to highlight one or two very compelling things that came up during your interview. Or, provide follow-up information that you didn’t have on hand during the discussion like a Web site or a sample of some work you didn’t have with you at the time. In both of these cases, stick to the plan you started out with don’t cloud your note with too many objectives or unrelated elements.
6. Write your note within 1 to 12 hours of your interview, anything later than that and you begin to lose relevance and the interviewer’s interest.
7. Be sure to have someone proof your note before you send it, nothing can undo a fantastic memory of your interview quicker than bad grammar or misspellings.
8. In your closing make sure you include accurate contact information for yourself.
9. You may want to Cc: yourself in the address header so that you have a copy of what you wrote but do not group your addressee’s in your To: line. This should be a personal note to who ever you interviewed with and no one else. Some companies will forward a copy of your note to HR to be kept in your file so you won’t have Cc: your Recruiter if you have one.

Although a hand written thank you note is far superior to any email, sending anything (even electronically) is preferable to nothing.  So in this day and age, using email to get your note delivered is perfectly acceptable.  But, you should take into account your audience, the position you’re interviewing for, and the industry the job is in when you choose which delivery method you should use.  If you’re interviewing for a position in a hi-tech company, email would be the delivery method of choice.  A position at a law firm might require a hand written card.  A sales position for a large manufacturer might necessitate a typed letter.

So, send a note quickly, be positive, be as brief as possible, hand craft a note to each interviewer, and make sure you have someone else proof it.  But, by all means, send it.

SAMPLE THANK YOU NOTES

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