Writing a Job Interview Thank You Letter.

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Should you send a job interview thank you letter after an interview? The answer to this question is almost always yes. In this article, we will take a look at how to write a great thank you letter to send after an interview, discuss a thank you letter sample and decide how to send one.

Sending a well thought out thank you letter to your interviewer after an interview is a great way to ensure that your application stands out over other applicants. However, sending a poorly written letter will have the opposite effect, and for this reason, you need to put careful consideration into the content of your letter. You also need to realise that if you had a disastrous interview simply writing to your interviewer probably won’t make a huge difference.

What to include in your Job interview thank you letter

Writing a thank you letter to the hiring manager after an interview is actually quite simple. For the purpose of this article, we will assume that you are sending an email to the hiring manager.

Let’s have a quick look at the ideal contents of such a letter.

1) Subject Line.

You can use a variety of subject lines. However, I suggest using something simple along the lines of “Great speaking with you” or “Thank you – Admin Assistant Interview.”

2) Greeting.

Your greeting will depend largely on the position you are applying for and the culture of the company. If you are unsure what to use “Good Day Mr. Smith” is always a safe bet. However, as I mentioned, different company cultures may permit less formal greetings such as “Good day John” or even “Hi John,” in extremely informal company cultures.

3) Main body

This is the most important section for obvious reasons. You are going to want to cover a few points in this section such as thanking them for their time and reaffirming your interest in the position. I recommend that you personalise this section by mentioning something specific from your interview.

4) Closing paragraph

Your closing paragraph does not need to be exceptionally long. Simply mention that you are available for any follow up questions and that you look forward to their decision.

Common questions people ask when writing a Job interview thank you letter.

Should you use Email or is mailing hard copy better?

In this day and age, I personally feel that using Email is really the only option. I say this for a number of reasons.

Firstly, and most importantly, sending an Email is almost instant. This means that you can get in touch with your interviewer on the same day as the interview or at the very least the next day. This is great because your interview will still be fresh in the hiring manager’s mind, which may not be the case in a day or two. Especially if the company is interviewing numerous candidates over an extended period.

Secondly, it does not take as much time as printing and mailing a hard copy letter.

And Thirdly, Email is generally accepted as the norm for written communication these days. Some recruiters recommend sending a hard copy for high-level positions, however, even in this situation, I would recommend Email.

When should you send your post-interview thank-you letter?

There is no hard rule when it comes to the timing of sending your thank you letter. However, do not wait too long! Try to keep the following recommendations in mind when deciding when to send your post-interview thank-you letter.

• Make sure you send the thank you letter within 24 hours of your interview. As I mentioned earlier you are going to want to ensure that your interview remembers your conversation clearly.
• Always send your thank you note during working hours, preferably between 11:00 and 14:00.

There are different opinions on whether or not you should send your thank-you note on the same day as your interview or not. There is absolutely no problem with sending your thank you note on the same day, especially if your interview was early in the morning or on a Friday.

In the case of an early morning interview, an afternoon thank-you note is perfectly acceptable. And for a Friday interview, it is better not to leave sending until Monday. For this reason, try not to schedule late afternoon interviews on a Friday if possible.

What subject line should you use?

There are a variety of subject lines that would be perfectly acceptable. Choose one that feels right for you while keeping the following guidelines in mind.

• Keep it simple and focused
• Make the content of the Email obvious
• Keep it short

Some great examples of subject lines are;

• Thank you for the [job title] interview yesterday. [today]
• Thank you for your time yesterday. [today]
• It was great speaking with you yesterday. [today]
• Thank you for your time yesterday. [today]
• Thank you – [job title] interview.

Can I just use a standard template after every interview?

No! Please do not do this.

The entire point of sending a thank you letter after your interview is to help you stand out from the crowd. Sending a standard template with no thought put into it is going to come across as lazy, and this is not how you want to be remembered when the interviewer finally makes their decision.

Ensure that your note is personalised by mentioning a specific topic that you enjoyed discussing with the interviewer. This way they will know that you have put some effort into writing the letter, and more importantly, they will remember you for this topic that hopefully they also enjoyed discussing.

I was not interviewed by the hiring manager. Do I need to send a thank you letter?

Yes, of course.

Just because the person that conducted the interview was not the hiring manager does not mean you should skip the process of thanking the person for their time.

This person will probably appreciate your letter more than the hiring manager, and the fact that they conducted the interview probably means they have some influence over the hiring process.

Even if you participated in a pre-screening Skype or telephonic interview be sure to send an appropriate thank you letter.

Job interview thank you letter sample.

Below is a rough outline of what a post-interview thank-you note should look like. It has a lot of personalised information missing however the idea is to give you a quick outline of all the elements of a great interview thank you letter.

Good Day [Interviewers Name]

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me [day of interview]. I greatly enjoyed our discussion about the [job title] position available at [company name]. I appreciate having had the opportunity to learn more about the vacancy and your business in particular.

The vacancy sounds fantastic and I am excited about the opportunity of working at [company name]. It is a role that I am confident I would excel at given my experience in [list some personal achievements or skills and relate them to the current vacancy].

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as you have any further information regarding your decision. In the meantime please know that I am available at any time should you have any follow up questions.

Warmest Regards,
[Your Full Name]

This is a very simple yet professional Thank you note that would be appropriate for most job applications. You can download this post job interview letter template in Microsoft word format here.

Let’s see what it would look like personalised.

Good Day Mr. Jones,

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me yesterday. I greatly enjoyed our discussion about the Human Resources position available at Bizcraft Inc. I appreciate having had the opportunity to learn more about the vacancy and your business in particular.

The vacancy sounds fantastic and I am excited about the opportunity of working at Bizcraft Inc. It is a role that I am confident I would excel at given my experience in my previous role as Human Resources Manager at XZY Trading. I particularly feel that my previous responsibilities involving preparing and executing staff training programs would greatly benefit Bizcraft, as staff training seems to be at the forefront of management concerns at Bizcraft. [You may want to expand on this area if you are able to]

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as you have any further information regarding your decision. In the meantime please know that I am available at any time should you have any follow up questions.

Warmest Regards,
Joan Snow

Important tips to remember when personalizing this post job interview thank you note.

Do not make silly mistakes.

You need to be especially sure that what you are sending is 100% perfect. A thank you email is quite short so mistakes will stand out significantly more and are a lot less forgivable.

Check your spelling and proofread your message more than once. Make sure that it makes sense for your situation especially if you are working from a template.

A badly written note may actually do more harm than good, so do not rush the process. After all, this will hopefully be the last thank you note you write for a while.

Do not send the same Email to multiple people at the same company.

This could either be done by copying and pasting or by adding people to the CC section of the Email. Either way, this is not acceptable. It will come across as lazy and give the impression you are just sending the thank you letter because you feel obligated. This is not the impression you want to be giving.

If you are sending a thank you note to multiple people after an interview, make sure that each message is tailored for a specific person. Yes, this is time-consuming, but it will be worth it.

Conclusion

Sending a thank-you note after an interview is not going to guarantee that you will land the job. However, it is certainly going to give you an edge over other candidates if it is a close race.

All this starts with actually securing an interview. If you are having problems with this please read this article on tips for securing an interview.