A Guide to the Post-Job Interview Thank You Note

If you knew there was something you could do after a job interview that would take less than half an hour and put you in the top 5% of candidates, would you do it? Welcome to the concept of after-interview thank you notes!

Because so few people make the effort to send thank you notes to interviewers, those who do stand out because of their enthusiasm and knowledge of business etiquette. Writing a thank you note won't get you a job that you're poorly qualified for, but if two or more candidates are on equal footing, the prospective employer will select the one that followed up with a thank you note every time.

If you're not a confident writer, there are many templates for business thank you notes available online, but the basics are to remind the interviewer who you are (for all you know, she may have interviewed hundreds of candidates) by mentioning something you discussed in the interview, thank her for her time, say something positive about her organization, and mention briefly why you think you would be a good fit for the position. It is perfectly acceptable to be more complimentary than you might be under other circumstances- to be honest, interviewers expect a certain amount of obsequiousness, and if you fail to oblige, it might seem churlish. (Just think about it-if you were in the position to hire someone, would you want the person who worshiped the ground you walked on or the person who wasn't impressed with you?) The following sample covers those bases:

"Dear Ms. Lawrence:

Thank you so much for the opportunity to interview with you yesterday. It was a pleasure to meet you and to tour your new facility. I especially enjoyed hearing about your upcoming projects, including the after-school care program that is planned for January. It is clear to me that you and your company really believe in giving back to the community. This is one of my strongest values as well, and since you have a large immigrant population in your area and I speak several languages, I am sure I would be an asset to your organization. I greatly appreciate the time you spent with me and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Martin Albright"

The after-interview thank you note can also be used to add information that you may have forgotten to present at the interview. Add a parenthetical statement to the above letter: "Since you have a large immigrant population in your area and I speak several languages, I am sure I would be an asset to your organization. (I mentioned yesterday that I speak Spanish, French and Italian, but I neglected to tell you I'm fluent in Portuguese as well.)"

When should you send this thank you note? Most employment counselors recommend that it go out the very next day. That may be ideal in most cases, but if you forget to do it or life gets in the way, don't think of it as a wasted opportunity. Send it when you get a chance-better late than never is true in this case. There are also situations where it makes sense to wait a bit on purpose. For example, if you find out you're the first person to respond to the help wanted ad and you know the employer is going to be seeing people for 3 weeks after you, wait a week or two and then send the thank you note. This way when he receives it, you'll be fresh in his mind again. Or if, at the interview, he tells you that you made a positive impression on him but he has to discuss it with a higher-up who will be back from a business trip next week, time your thank you note to arrive around the time the higher-up will return.

There is a great deal of debate about whether the thank you note should be handwritten, typed, or if e-mail is acceptable. There is no one right answer to this question-you need to have a feel for the corporate culture. If you are interviewing to be Miss Manners' personal assistant, then only a handwritten note will suffice. However, if your handwriting is terrible and part of the job description indicates that familiarity with word processing software is necessary, typing the note will serve you better. And if the person you're interviewing for contacted you via e-mail to set up the job interview, an e-mail thank you note is probably fine. Be sure to put your name in the subject of the e-mail, i.e., "Thank you note from Martin Albright after our interview yesterday," so you're not deleted as spam if your e-mail address isn't recognized.

If you're unsure, though, go the more formal route. You'll never be penalized for sending a thank you note with a stamp, but there are people who will take the position that an e-mail doesn't count.