Do You Really Need to Send a Thank You Note After Your Interview?
This is a corporate custom that may seem outdated or even a banal formality. However, anyone with extensive job search experience will tell you how important it is to send a thank you note after your interview. At least this is a common opinion. How important is it really? Interview best practices say that thanking a hiring manager or HR employee for their time is just a basic measure of professional etiquette. But why? No two interview experiences are the same. Sometimes a potential candidate speaks to several different interviewers over the course of several months. Does everyone who asks you deserve thanks for their time? Why isn’t the interviewer obligated to thank the candidate?
Due to the subjectivity of corporate (and even non-corporate) interviews, it is not always obvious how and when you should thank the hiring manager for the courtesy he tried to convince you to hire. However, many consider this to be a standard part of the interview process, and since there are chances that there are expectations, you should plan this for jobs that you really hold dear.
The staff really take note of the gratitude
According to a 2017 survey by HR consulting firm Robert Half, 80% of HR managers find that a follow-up thank you email is either somewhat helpful or very helpful when they’re looking at a stream of equally qualified candidates. In the absence of a thank you note, there is a chance that the hiring manager will not be able to confirm your supposedly strong interest in the job beyond the 15-30 minutes you spent on the phone call or teleconference. In fact, they may assume that you were discouraged from continuing the work unless you show appreciation and show further interest in you.
Some organizations place special emphasis on thank-you letters, which may seem overwhelming. In a 2019 post for Business Insider , the website’s global managing editor, Jessica Liebman, raised a hefty amount online for writing that she only hires candidates who write thank-you emails after interviews. The idea that refusing to send a follow-up email should completely undermine the chances of getting a job offer is not universal – and in fact, some HR professionals take the opposite view and believe that the lack of a memo should definitely not disqualify a candidate – but given that this is a debate that often turns into online matches when discussed in public forums, it’s probably safer for you to write one like this.
Email is ok
Expressing gratitude for an interview is, in a sense, a relic of old corporate etiquette. According to Robin Sommerstein, a human resources consultant based in Los Angeles, receiving a thank you by mail was truly a commendable move before the advent of email.
She explains to Lifehacker how thank you notes have been used to showcase a high level of effort and interest from the other person due to the rather painstaking process of printing and mailing the letter:
As far as I can remember from years past, regular mail thank-you notes have always been appreciated because of the time and effort to write the note. This showed the interviewer that the candidate is seriously interested and appreciates the time spent meeting with a group or one interviewer.
Even in the age of email, the need to express gratitude remains – and given that email requires less effort on your part than preparing a physical letter, addressing an envelope, paying for postage, and finding a mailbox, you can keep a concise note – preferably send within 24 hours after the interview, according to Indeed job site .
As Sommerstein notes:
A truly valuable thank you note e-mail contains information about what you learned about the company during the interview or through the website, or a statement that was not made during the interview. Write your thoughts on why you think you would be an asset in this position and would be a good fit for the company.
It sounds simple enough, but don’t overdo it — the brevity in this context is admirable, Sommerstein says, advising that “more than two sentences but no more than two very short paragraphs” should help. With this in mind, you can get creative. She recommends including “something smart but not overly smart, humorous but not overly humorous, quote the manager’s words if [it was] important to you.”
When it comes to thanking multiple interviewers, it might be prudent to ask each for a business card during the interview, or ask for a specific person’s email address if they haven’t already been provided to you. Of course, if you get a little more adventurous and find someone’s email address on your own, it shows a specific industry that the hiring manager will notice. You might have to call someone’s assistant to get an email address, but you could also ask your main contact at the company to forward your thank you note to everyone you spoke to, Sommerstein says. It is not necessary for every person you speak to receive a memo from you, especially since it can be difficult to track everyone if the process has been particularly stretched, but the effort, if noticed by the hiring manager, will certainly be admirable.
Neglecting to write a thank-you note doesn’t necessarily save you getting involved – Sommerstein notes that she personally never refused to renew a job offer just because a candidate didn’t write a thank-you note – a very minimal effort. effort and it could make a difference.