Very interesting perspectives as I plan to start job hunting soon. I think I’d probably base it on the age of the interviewer. The younger they are, the less likely I am to send a thank you email. I’d assume if they’re 50+, they’d want one.
I was well over 50 when I finished interviewing and I never cared. I don’t think anyone else 50+ cared either. If my fellow interviewers ever got thank yous, they never mentioned it.
Also, we made up our minds about a candidate by the next day at latest, so a note wouldn’t have done any good. Wouldn’t do any harm either, though.
Ok, that’s good information. I know for me I already have 3000 unread emails in my work email and I’m choked to death by emails that I don’t need.
I used to interview on a regular basis. I didn’t hold it against anyone if they didn’t send an thank-you, and sending boilerplate thank-you notes didn’t do them any good in my decision. However, a thank-you WITH a follow-up point from the interview (maybe they would further expand upon a question upon further reflection, or touch back on something we talked about, etc), would earn them a brownie point or two. Sometimes that would be the difference between two candidates that were otherwise pretty equal.
I interview people fairly often, but I just write feedback that gets sent to a hiring committee, who makes the actual decision, so an emailed thank you after the fact is not going to be that useful.
Many answers here surprise me. I have been both interviewer and interviewee, and thank you notes were routine (in the non-profit sector or working for international development organizations).
The thank you note isn’t about being a clueless suck-up. It’s about showing that you listened to what you learned in the interview and it reinforced your desire to work for that employer.
Thank you notes I sent/received typically looked something like this:
Dear Ms. Johnson,
Thank you so much for interviewing me yesterday for the position of grant writer. I particularly enjoyed learning that Helping Hands is moving in the direction of greater partner accountability, as that was one of my favorite parts of in my last job. I am hoping I will have chance to work with you on establishing your systems in this area. I look forward to hearing from you about the opening.
Sincerely,
Cairo “not-a-suck-up” Carol
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Have hired hundreds and interviewed…a lot. I don’t care if you send me a thank-you note, but that part where you try to Link me In to thank me just creeps me out.
Maybe depends on the industry and professional level. In sales, I will check off that you followed up. Christ, do you want the job? What kind of message are you sending me about your follow up skills?
A follow up email in a professional setting, should never be a negative. It might be a check list option. It might help. And, frankly, its a two minute exercise that might have a positive impact.
When I was an administrator involved in faculty hiring, I occasionally (maybe about 20 percent of the time) received post-interview thank-you notes—usually handwritten. I didn’t expect those notes, but I did appreciate them, and I certainly didn’t consider them “sucking up.” Sometimes we ended up hiring those people!
Things may have changed since I retired. We sent out rejection letters to every unsuccessful applicant after the search was concluded, and I remember signing all of those letters. I understand that it’s standard now to ghost anyone you don’t hire.
I interview physicians and nurse practitioners for government jobs. I don’t expect a thank you note, and if I get one, it doesn’t factor positively into whether or not I select them. It might factor negatively, depending on what they wrote. But usually it has no effect whatsoever.
It’s rare, but I’ve had a couple of these. Usually a followup to a question during the interview that the candidate didn’t get a chance to fully flesh out. Even if the candidate “cheated” by Googling the answer or getting a friend to help, it does at least demonstrate recognition of their limitations and a certain tenacity. I don’t recall it ever changing the final decision, but it didn’t hurt.
I don’t expect it but I always appreciate it, and it helps the candidate to stand out just a little. It’s not make-or-break, but I do find it to be professional, and it gives me more of an idea how they interact with people. In software you don’t want a “fuck off and just let me code” person.
I am in software and systems, and I disagree that it’s irrelevant and even intrusive. I can’t see how sending an email to someone who has interviewed you is either. I wouldn’t mind in the least if they got my email from the company web site or messaged me through LinkedIn. (I would find it a little creepy if they searched sufficiently to find my personal email address, but that’s never happened.)
I’ve been interviewing people for probably 15 years now in some variation of “consulting” or “technology professional services”. I’ve generally made my decision during the interview process, so your “thank you” email is largely irrelevant in that regard. Although, where the “thank you” does come in handy is in reminding me to send my feedback to HR (or prompting me to ask HR what the next step is). So generally it can’t hurt you, but can help drive the process forward.
Maybe it’s a sales thing, because I was in marketing. Of course you send thank you notes. You never, ever walk away from a contact without leaving the door open for getting together in the future.
And after I’ve given you 15-60 minutes of my time because you are asking me for a job, I think you should respect me enough to do something more than just say “thank you” and walk out.
No, I’ve never disqualified an applicant because I didn’t get a thank you note. But I think it’s good manners to send one. And by the way, I and the people I’ve worked with send handwritten, delivered by snail mail, personalized notes.
The few times I’ve interviewed someone, they didn’t have my email; I don’t think they even got my full name in writing.
When I am interviewed, I usually don’t get people’s email; very often, I don’t even get everybody’s full name in writing. For example, yesterday I had an interview and I know the full name of one person, firstname of another (but it can be pronounced that way and spelled multiple ways) and didn’t catch the firstname of the third one.
When I’m the one being interviewed, I do send an email to the agent telling them how it went from my side.
Interesting. I never have gotten one of those, and since I interview to find in depth knowledge (I never give quizzes) it wouldn’t help at all.
I was thinking something more like “you said your design process was blah blah blah. Did you ever have a problem with yadda yadda yadda?” I wouldn’t care if the observation made a lot of sense, since there is only so much a candidate could take in. But thinking about what the candidate was told would count a lot.
Maybe one person did that. More, mostly students, took the time to Google me and took a look at some of my papers before the interview. That did count.
I wouldn’t call my interviews quizzes either, but I do start with a problem and ask the candidate to reason towards an answer. I try to keep it open ended and don’t demand any specific response, although there are better and worse answers. So a followup might be something like “I was thinking about your question afterward and realized that a hash table is a better fit than a binary tree due to the O(1) lookup time and blah blah blah”.
Overall, I’d call it a positive since even just remembering the question meant they grokked it at some level, and that counts for a lot already. But as I said, it’s rare enough that I don’t think it’s ever swung a decision.
I did once have a candidate gift me a small bottle of maple syrup. That was… a little awkward.
They are giving you their time to your benefit. You asked them to come in, probably using their vacation time or taking unpaid time off, because you or your business needs something. And you got paid to do it.
A candidate is not doing an employer a favor by coming in for an interview. If, as an interviewer, I caught a whiff of that attitude, the interview would be over.