Now Its All About Me

Sending a thank you note to the interviewer  is good business etiquette but it  may not help you land the job. I have often seen candidates send out thank you notes with  errors in them (spelling, grammatical, etc) just as recently as this week.  Thank you notes with errors will not help you get the job.  In fact, if you were being considered for the job, you probably will no longer be considered.  For example,  I had a client preparing an offer letter for a candidate and the candidate was suppose to receive the letter later that day in electronic format.  The candidate was very excited about this job opportunity so he decided to send the hiring manager a thank you note. In his thank you note, he had spelled the hiring manager’s name incorrectly.  He had also incorrectly used the word for you are as your instead of using the contraction you’re.  Unfortunately, this type of error may not show up in spell check.  When the hiring manager received the thank you note, he immediately called me and told me he changed his mind and would not be extending the job offer to the candidate because of the errors found in the thank you note.  So in this particular case, the thank you note hurt the candidate and cost him the job. So how can you help assure the thank you note you send will give you an edge above the other candidates and possibly help land you the job?

Make your thank you note personal

I interview over 30 people every week (1500+/year) and  receive many thank you notes. Most of the thank you notes I have read  pretty much say the same thing – “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.  I really enjoyed our conversation and meeting you. etc. etc. etc.  Thank you notes should be more personalized rather than the standard fare.  So you should include something you learned in the interview about the interviewer.  For example,  you might say Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.  I really enjoyed our conversation about your typical day at Company ABC. I would than go  further and  perhaps in one or two sentences summarize the conversation about his typical day.

Leverage the thank you note for self marketing

You should always include in your thank you note why you would be perfect for the the job. During the interview, you learned about the qualities they are looking for  in the candidate that will fill the position.  So keep this in mind when writing about why you would be perfect for the job.  See my Job Interview Tips post if you didn’t ask about this during the interview.

Take your thank you note to the next level

What do I mean by this?  During the interview, you learned about the challenges of the position you are seeking.  You probably also learned about some of the projects that are planned that you would be involved with should you get the job.  Why not include in your thank you note  how you would go about overcoming some of the challenges in the position?  Draw from your actual experience and include  real examples of how you were able to overcome the challenges and/or use them perhaps to your advantage.  You should also discuss what your approach would be with some of the planned activities that were mentioned in the interview if you got the job and even suggest some other things that should be considered and why, again drawing from actual experience.  Once you’ve taken your thank you to the next level, then close it with something like this:  I have worked on several  projects like this before and have a couple of ideas that you might find useful. Perhaps we can explore this  at your convenience. I  look forward to hearing from you.

Sending a thank you note to the interviewer in a timely manner is good business etiquette.  Please make sure your thank you notes are well thought out and contain no grammatical and/or spelling errors. Thank you notes are a great way to give you an edge over the other candidates vying for the same job when done properly.

Good Luck.

GO