As someone who has interviewed countless candidates for positions across four companies, I can count on two hands the number of times a candidate wrote a thank you note. Even fewer personalize the note.
Getting from the interview to your dream job is a multi-step process. Submitting a killer resume (check out these tips!) and asking the right questions of the hiring manager are two important components, but fighting for your dream job doesn't stop the minute you walk out the door after your interview.
Just 10 minutes of writing a thank you note can have a huge impact on your career prospects. I have seen Director-level candidates who may have been a good fit for the company dismissed purely because they did not take the time to write a thank-you note. Why, you ask? If the candidate isn’t willing to take 10 minutes to thank the people interviewing them, we don’t trust them to manage relationships in the community and the organization.
In my last 7 years interviewing candidates across multiple companies, we have never hired someone who did not write a thank you note. Now, is that true for all companies? No! But the companies I have worked for prize this small action because it a) reaffirmed the candidate’s interest in the company, b) makes them memorable, and c) shows that they value relationship management. As all the positions I have hired individuals for have revolved around working with community members, thank you notes have been seen as a critical indicator of success in the future role.
Writing a thank you note doesn’t have to be difficult. When interviewing for one of my previous positions, I wrote both an email and a hand-written thank you note to my interviewers. The email thank you note took 3 minutes and the hand-written one added another 5. In the year I worked there, both interviewers kept my hand-written thank you note pinned up in their cubes because it was the only time they had ever received a personalized hand-written thank you note from someone they interviewed.
If you interview in-person for a job, I recommend writing a thank you note and mailing it to the office IN ADDITION to an email thank you note. While some may think this is overkill, it ensures you are memorable and adds personalization to your interviewing experience. However, no matter who you interview with or how, you should write an email thank you note.
Below is my general format for an email thank you note. The biggest tip I can give is personalize, personalize, personalize. Address your message directly to the person who interviewed you and mention specific insight/conversation points from the interview. While a template can be helpful for guiding your email, you do not want it to be overly generic. The email thank you note should be sent the day of your interview, the next day at the latest.:
Template
Dear [INSERT NAME OF INTERVIEWER],
Thank you so much for meeting with me today to discuss the position of [POSITION] at [COMPANY NAME].
It was wonderful to hear a bit more about the organization's mission and goal, especially [INSERT SPECIFIC COMMENTARY FROM THE INTERVIEW]. The opportunity to work as [POSITION] at [COMPANY NAME] would provide me an opportunity to use my skills and passion for [INSERT SPECIFIC SKILLS AND INTEREST RELEVANT TO COMPANY] at an organization I am deeply excited about. I remain excited about the opportunity after our conversation today and believe my background could uniquely contribute to the team.
[IF THERE ARE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES RELATED TO YOUR CONVERSATION, SHARE HERE. IT COULD BE A RECENT PRESS RELEASE, RELATED ARTICLE, ETC].
Thank you again for your time, and if there is any additional information I can provide you please let me know.
Warmly,
[YOUR NAME]
Example
Below is an example of a thank you note I sent to a company focused on bringing people together across the partisan divide. In the course of the interview, we discussed my blog, including that I had written a piece about Bipartisan Friendships. The tone is more informal based on the conversation we had in the interview, and that I was already scheduled for a follow-up interview.
Hello [INTERVIEWER NAME],
I wanted to send you an email to thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. I loved having an opportunity to learn more about the vision for [COMPANY NAME], especially in terms of what target audiences you are seeking to connect with. The opportunity to balance using social media as a means to acquire new philanthropic funding with reaching into communities across the political spectrum is of great personal interest to me.
Our conversation reminded me of a Pew Research Center study on the growing partisan divide. If you haven't had a chance to read it, it is a fascinating 10 part study which covers the underlying ideology of the partisan divide. I can certainly see an overlap between the work of {COMPANY NAME], and the data in this study.
During our conversation, I also mentioned I run a blog. While the audience is geared towards Millennials and Gen Z as a lifestyle blog, one post you may find particularly interesting is the post Opposites Attract: Developing Bipartisan Friendships. The post was originally published on January 30th, 2017 [aka 10 days after the Inauguration]. It was a collaboration between one of my Republican Friends who was the wife of an active-duty airman, and myself, discussing how we maintain a bipartisan friendship. It reminds me of the work of [COMPANY NAME] on a minor scale.
For context (and since blog writing will be a component of this position), in 2019 my blog generated 11,395 pageviews from 6,894 users. Despite not regularly publishing in 2019, the content was well designed with SEO in mind and caught the interest of the audience. 2019 saw a 1,210.65% increase over the previous year's performance. In the first 2 months of 2020, I have already seen 22% of the traffic I received in all of 2019. In addition to experience writing blogs that connect with my audience, I also have experience using Pinterest and Instagram to drive traffic.
I look forward to more conversations in the future.
Warmly,
Cambria
Follow Up On Application Status
Want to know how to follow up after a thank you note? Say you already wrote a thank you note (Good Job!) but haven’t heard back about your dream position. This is the template I use for outreaching in that case. At the end of the interview, I usually ask about the hiring timeline for the position, which I use to guide when I will reach out. I usually will sent this email 2 weeks after my interview, or around the date they indicated initial round interviews would be completed.:
Dear [INTERVIEWER NAME],
I hope you are well.
I wanted to follow up and see if you had any additional insight regarding the status of my application. I remain excited by the work of [COMPANY NAME], and believe my background in [INSERT SPECIFICS ON WHY YOUR BACKGROUND HELPS] could uniquely contribute to the organization.
Thank you
Warmly,
Cambria
When reaching out to follow-up on your application, it can also be good to bring up a recent study, article, etc relevant to the company. For instance, when interviewing at a company that works in the National Parks, I was able to reference and link an article showing the increase in park attendance which was released that week. This allows you to demonstrate your continued interest in the field beyond just acquiring a job.
What are your tips for following up after an interview? Let me know in the comments!