Saying “Thank You” To Your Interviewers
There was a discussion on LI last week about sending a thank you note to interviewers. Of course it was from a “career expert” who used an example along the lines of “this one time, at band camp, I had a hiring manager that would not consider candidates that didn’t send a thank you.”
So for our weekly Clubhouse call on Recruiting Demystified, we decided to cover the ins and outs of appropriate ways to thank your interview team.
Should I send a thank you?
· Thank yous are never a bad idea; you are acknowledging the interviewer’s time and interest
· In jobs/industries that are relationship driven, this may be a major litmus test for follow through (sales, marketing, consulting, personal/professional services, customer service, recruiting)
· Email vs. snail mail: industry/role specific (and keep in mind that many employers aren’t in the office at all to RECEIVE snail mail right now)
“Can you please send me all the email addresses for the people I interviewed with?”
· It is often against company policy to give out interviewer contact information — for security purposes. Definitely send your thank yous to the recruiter/RC to forward along
· If you have the interviewer’s full name, you can send them a LI connection request and use the connection note as a way to say thank you
If I don’t send a thank you note will this jeopardize my chances to get the job?
· They may make you stand out positively in a hiring manager’s mind — but neither of us on the call this week (in over 40 years of combined recruiting experience including FAANG/Fortune 50 companies as well as SMB’s) has EVER had a hiring manager say “I’m not going to hire them because they DID NOT send a thank you”
Leveraging the “thank you” as a final opportunity to impress the hiring manager/team
· Trying to “correct” an interview miss in a thank you probably has more of a chance to misfire than anything
· Don’t try and “oversell” in your thank you — it is fine to reference specific points in the conversation to remind the recipient about your discussion, but this is not the time to try and rehash your elevator pitch
