how to write thank you letter after bad interview

I had a poor on-campus interview with an adcom and the interview didn't even go past 25 mins. I thought I was prepared but it went downhill quick. This was my first mba interview and I don't have many alternate schools at the moment. Please post or pm me if you have any advice .

6 Comments
 
Best Response

If the interview was truly as bad as you think, no thank you letter will save or excuse or fix it. Whatever you do, don't imply a poor performance or offer excuses- that will not help if you're right and will only hurt if you're wrong. Thank-you letters often seal the deal on a great interview or sometimes make the difference for a good but not great interview. I'm not hearing that here.

Unless you really want this and it's possible you could have gotten the wrong impression, I'd send a pro-forma thank you and devote the minimum energy to this required to be a polite interviewee. Then let it go, let the admission committee sort it out, and stop thinking about it after you send the thank you note. You're free of this now. Get some exercise and let your mind be free. Forget the interview; it never happened. You are not going to dwell on it any further (after you have sent off the note.)

I am just one data point and I could be wrong. The last thing I would want to do is have my advice be your only advice, because I honestly don't know how the interview went, or how important it is. Many people suffer post-interview anxiety and second-guess themselves way too much. And I don't want to cause anguish where there shouldn't be any. But the kindest thing you can do for yourself is to spend no more than an hour on this and then let this go. And then forget the interview ever happened and stop second-guessing yourself.

So my advice is this: write the thank you, say you enjoyed being there, you want to come there, thanks, SEND. Keep the option there but devote no more energy than you need to. Now you're free to go think about something else. Get some exercise, set a new personal best on your time for the mile, and get your confidence back. For six minutes, you'll be too busy focused on getting your time down to a 6:15 to think about the interview, and after that, whenever your mind wanders to the interview, steer it to your time on the mile.

Good luck.

 

You could ask them a question or two in the note, without referencing the interview.

"There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat."
 

Repellendus corporis quae odit excepturi ut cupiditate vel. Corrupti quo autem quaerat voluptates quasi. Quis et repellat laudantium quas quasi quo optio omnis. Hic ducimus reiciendis quis eos impedit ullam tenetur voluptatem. Aliquid sint excepturi aliquid.

Repudiandae et dolores beatae eum laboriosam id a. Dolorum repellat aut nesciunt repudiandae. Est voluptas atque assumenda doloribus autem ut iusto aut.

Est qui vel laudantium nisi repellendus in. Et exercitationem amet consequuntur magni illo et omnis. Sit adipisci eaque atque deleniti eos omnis id. Aut qui ea eos dolorem repudiandae nihil. Qui placeat cupiditate voluptatem dolores in et. Velit nostrum quisquam tenetur. Id odit et soluta itaque odit dicta beatae temporibus.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (48) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (83) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”