Sure, fine. But that’s not the issue. The issue is that a applicant follows the advice given by “experts” and you shitcan their application based upon your biases.
1996 - Didn’t send one because I walked out of the interview with the job
1999 - Didn’t send one, got the job with a telephone interview
2001 - Didn’t send one because I walked out of the interview with the job
2012 - Sent one, didn’t get the job
2014 - Sent one, didn’t get the job
2015 - Sent one, didn’t get the job
2016 - Sent one, didn’t get the job
2018 - Didn’t send one because I walked out of the interview with the job
Based on my experience, I wouldn’t recommend sending it.
It always seems weird when I get one, but I don’t hold it against the person who sent it - unless there’s something wrong with the note. It can hurt you if you misspell a word or there’s a grammar mistake or there’s something else just slightly off. I don’t see a way for it to help you.
LinkedIn seems like a horrible idea unless your interviewer initiates it. It seems presumptive.
Like I said, I never had to opportunity to chuck anything since no one actually followed the so-called universal advice of experts. If this is such an incredibly common/standard thing then why did I never see it happen???
You can’t actually be biased against 2 headed ducks if you’ve never seen one!
Ignoring the advice of “experts” on 2 headed ducks is hardly bad behavior.
Only if you fail the spelling test.
I’ve done some interviews. I wouldn’t hold it against somebody to get a thank you email but it wouldn’t help, either. If I need to be reminded who you are, you probably didn’t make much of an impression in the first place. And I’ve never seen the hypothetical situation where everybody in a group of candidates were all equally qualified with only a thank you email to differentiate them. People just aren’t that generic.
That said, there’s one situation where I’d say it absolutely hurts. For the most part, I have gone out of my way to make sure the only contact information I provide is for a generic HR email address and telephone number.
So, any thank you notes or calls to me personally (and I have gotten a few of these over the years) would mean that person has gone out of their way to get my personal information in order to do so. It may be as simple as guessing my corporate email address (and it’s not very difficult to do so if you know my name), but that’s still a red flag when it wasn’t offered in the first place.
I think this is kind of the crux of it. I’ve found that most job seeking advice given is targeted at junior level employees/interns/college students without a lot of job history who are applying for entry level positions. For those positions, interviewers are looking more for professionalism and work ethic than they are for skills and experience, so the niceties help.
At mid level and senior positions where candidates will have some work history, skills and experience are more what drives the decision. Professionalism still matters, but it is unlikely that a single thank-you email will be a deciding factor.
I’m adding this just for completeness. If you’re applying for a government job, you’re probably going to be interviewed by a panel. Each member of the panel will have an evaluation sheet with a list of evaluation criteria, with a maximum number of points that can be awarded for each item. As soon as you leave the room, the panel will fill out the sheet, assigning a number to each item and making notes to support that number. The sheets will be collected before the next interviewee is invited in. The panelists have access to you application.
It’s possible that a thank you note will let you start your new position on a positive note, assuming someone in the panel: 1) is going to be working with you and 2) gives you contact information. But the structure of the process prevents almost anything you do after the interview from changing your numbers.
Sometimes it’s a two-step process in which a first interview, and your application, is used to create a graded candidates list for a job category. Departments either make an offer to one of the top three candidates or they can re-interview the top three candidates. The formality of the second interview varies a lot, but the folks on that panel are more likely to be people you’re going to be working for or with.