OH MY GOD whyyyy did no one tell me you’re supposed to send thank-yous after interviews?? Why would I do that???
“Thank you for this incredibly stressful 30 minutes that I have had to re-structure my entire day around and which will give me anxiety poos for the next 24 hours.”
I HATE ETIQUETTE IT’S THE MOST IMPOSSIBLE THING FOR ME TO LEARN WITHOUT SOMEONE DIRECTLY TELLING ME THIS SHIT
NO ONE TOLD YOU???? WTF! I HAVE FAILED YOU.
Also:
Dear ______:
Thank you so much for the opportunity to sit down with you (&________) to discuss the [insert job position]. I am grateful to be considered for the position. I think I will be a great fit at [company name], especially given my experience in __________. [insert possible reference to something you talked about, something that excited you.] I look forward to hearing from you [and if you are feeling super confident: and working together in the future].
Sincerely,
@mellivorinae
THIS IS A LIFESAVING TEMPLATE
YOU ARE WELCOME
My brother got a really great paid internship one summer. The guy who hired him said the deciding factor was the professional thank you letter my brother sent after the interview.
should it be an email? or like a physical letter?
email, you want to send it within a few hours at max after the interview if you can so it’s fresh in their mind who you are.
Confirmed! I interviewed for a job right after arriving in NY. The interview went incredibly well, and I went home and immediately wrote a thank you letter and put it in the mail. I had a super good feeling about this interview.
I didn’t get the job.
However, a few weeks later, I was called in to interview with another editor in the same company, and I did get that job. I found out later from the initial editor (the one who didn’t hire me) that he had planned to offer me the job, but since I didn’t follow up with a thank you letter, he assumed I didn’t really want it. He offered the job to another contender–but when he got my letter in the mail shortly after the offer had already been made, he went to HR and gave me a glowing recommendation. It was based on that recommendation that I got called in for the second interview.
So: send an email thank you immediately (same day!) after the interview. If you’re feeling extra, go ahead and send a written one too. OR go immediately to a coffee shop, write the letter, and return to the office and give it to the secretary.
Either way, those letters are important.
Pro tip: If you really want HR to develop a personal interest in your application, publicly thank them on linkedin. Just make a short post telling your network about how X recruiter really went above and beyond to make you feel welcome, or about how be accommodating and professional they were, or whatever. Make sure to use the mention feature so they’ll get a notification and see it.
Flattery will get you everywhere… and public flattery that might make its way back to their manager, doubly so.
Obligatory plug for one of FreePrintable.net’s sites: ThankYouLetter.ws. They have a whole section with interview thank you letter templates, and a page with specific tips for interview thank you letters. (There are also tons of other letter templates if you browse around a bit.)
As a former professional recruiter and recruiting manager, I confirm, especially for entry-level positions, where you are competing with oodles of people. This little thing can make a difference. Also the fact that, maybe, you took time to google the “interview etiquette”.
SIGNAL BOOST
The post-interview thank you notes can be a good way to recover in case you got asked a question whose answer you either didn’t know or felt was super weak. So if you follow the above given template, jump in with something like “upon further thought to your question, here’s my revised answer.”
But yeah always send a thank you note after an interview. It’s a small thing but it makes a hell of a difference. And def send thank you messages to any recruiters who may have helped. And also after you get the job. Small things like that really go a long long way.
YA novel: what if you were sorted into an arbitrary category at birth and that defined your entire life and you were harshly punished for trying to break out of it
me in like 8th grade: wow this is really compelling and relatable for me. and theres no possible reason why
“you pick me up and drive me home again” (400 lux) // “now we sit in your car and our love is a ghost” (hard feelings / loveless)
“you buy me orange juice”(400 lux) // “i still remember everything / how we’d drift buying groceries” (pure heroine)
“we’ll never be royals” (royals) // “king and queen of the weekend” (sober)
“people are talking, people are talking” (a world alone) // “they’ll talk about us, all the lovers, how we kissed and killed each other” (sober ii)
“we ride the bus with our knees pulled in” (buzzcut season) // “i ride the subway, read the signs” (writer in the dark)
“we’re hollow like the bottles like we drain” (400 lux) // “so all the cups got broke / shards beneath our feet” (team) // “dropping bottles just to hear them break” (glory and gore) // “oh how fast the evening passes / cleaning up the champagne glasses” (sober ii)
“i’m kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air … kind of older than i was when i reveled without a care” (team) // “we pretend that we don’t care / but we care” (sober)
“that’s why we’re making headlines” (glory and gore) // “i hate the headlines and the weather” (perfect places)
“we’ve got that glow in our mouths / white teeth teens are out” (white teeth teens) // “oh god i’m closing my teeth around this liquor-wet lime” (sober)
“you’re my best friend, and we’re dancing in a world alone” (a world alone) // “we slow dance in the living room / but all a stranger would see / is one girl swaying alone / stroking her cheek” (liability)
“we can leave the house leave the party let the people know” (million dollar bills) // “maybe all this is the party” (liability reprise)
“my mother’s love is choking me” (the love club) // “i am my mother’s child, i’ll love you ‘til my breathing stops” (writer in the dark)
