Are post-interview Thank You notes worthless?
Hey monkeys,
I was just wondering how important the post-interview thank you notes are. I've been told by many professors, TAs, friends, and etc. that you should always send a thank you note after an interview. I understand that the whole point of it is to make sure that you are fresh in their head or stand out, but assuming everybody does it, what is the point? The recruiters/interviewer's inboxes will just be filled with thank you notes and will ignore it at that point. Do they look at it and read it through or do they just mark it as read?
Do you guys think thank you notes are worth sending or are they just a waste of time? Thoughts? Comments?
From what i've heard they don't read them, but they check off that you sent one. If you don't could look really bad. Also heard decisions are made before you even get time to send one out. But regardless takes like 10 seconds it's stupid to not send one.
Send it, better safe than sorry. If timely, it's also another chance to sell yourself again if you need to.
If you have questions and/or can use it to pitch yourself further and follow up on topics discussed, send one. DO NOT SEND SOME GENERIC SHIT! If they like you, it usuallly won't matter. If they didn't like you, it won't matter.
Honestly, its just another opportunity for you to make yourself look bad or rub someone the wrong way.
Better to not send one at all than be judged for the timing of the letter, word choice you used or potential spelling errors.
Looks pretty bad if you're the one kid who didn't send a thank you note and they took notice of that. It's common courtesy to thank somone for spending time on you..
Professars and TA's dont live in the reel world. I have aweful handwritting and suspet speling so i don't send thank yous too people.
You should always send a thank you email after an interview. There is no upside in doing so, but by not sending thank you emails after an interview, you run the risk of running into that one interviewer who does care.
Echoing the same comment - you stand to gain nothing (or very little) by sending a thank you e-mail, but you stand to lose a lot by not sending one.
Send some red velvet cupcakes.
Then in your email before they arrive, say, I hope you like velvet. Red. Velvet. In your sweet sweet mouth.
That'll do the trick.
omg hahahahah
I've gotten offers from both sending thank you's and getting zero responses and not sending any at all. I've actually found that the times I have gotten great responses to my thank you emails, I was dinged. I don't think it really matters but some old fashioned people might find it rude if you don't. Just keep it short and sweet.
Most emails should not be over 4 sentences. Thank you note included.
Yes, you have to send the thank you note, yes you have to send it within 24 hours, preferably the next morning. I don't send any emails in the evening unless it is urgent. Follow ups are always best done in the morning.
no downside imo. My boss is big on it, even for our interns. Just shows a sense of "hey i actually do care and respect your time and do what I can to show you I want this role"
As someone who has been in a hiring position, I can tell you that you should ALWAYS send one, and do so quickly.
Later, you can also follow up with a bit of press news you've found that highlights something you discussed; "hey remember how we talked about Apple, or the SEC's latest? Thought you might like this article." Why? 3 reasons: 1) top of mind is easiest to hire. Of the dozens of candidates I'll interview for a role, if a couple keep following up, guess who I'm thinking about? 2) it shows you're interested 3) because when I'm later rushed and cannot find your CV at least I can search my inbox for your email to get ahold of you
As people have noted, there is not much upside but there is certainly downside to not sending. Also, to maximize the possibility of upside be sure to personalize it with something interesting the two of you talked about during the interview.
Send it
Having just gone through the process of hiring junior individuals, I think you would be surprised by the percentage of candidates that do not send thank you email to all the individuals they interviewed with at a superday (or at least the ones they have email addresses for).
I'd recommend you send it. Even something as simple as: " _____, Thank you for your time yesterday. I really appreciated having the opportunity to meet with the team, learn more about [Firm Name] and look forward to next steps. Please let me know if there is anything else I can pass along at this time."
Thanks, ______"
There is zero downside. It rarely makes a difference, but I have found people appreciate them,
The manager that hired me for IB responded directly to the thank you note that I sent and kept me informed where they were along the process. He also used that email as a means to communicate information with me about the process twice, meaning he searched for that email to respond to again. It clearly helped.
I occasionally send them out when I really am interested in the job. However, as echoed above, I don't think it really matters (but I'm also not some 50+ year old who lives on outdated rules of thumb). Whenever I am involved in a hiring process and i get a thank you note, my first thought is that the kid is just sending it because of threads like this (but I'm just a cynical person at this point).
As someone who has sent dozens of these thank you messages after interviews and who has conducted the interview process I can say without a doubt that it really doesn't matter. If you do great during the interview we will most likely give you the job regardless of a well thought out thank you email. However, if someone sent me a typo ridden thank you letter, I might have that in the back of my mind if the competition is close.
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