A few days ago we looked at how Human Resources should respond after an interview, but what nice things can you expect in return from the interviewee? Well Careerbuilder gives some advice on writing that thank you note. It gives tips to the candidate to keep it formal, be specific, repeat yourself, make it personal, allay concerns, don't stop at one, and add an extra. The first part as a candidate is to make sure you send it and that you make it less of a formality. Meaning, the Human Resource person doesn't want to see a letter which looks like the candidate just filled in the name.
But a thank you letter can also tell you a lot about a candidate from the Human Resources side on the positive and negative side. I had two interviewees for the same position about a year ago. The first candidate came in very confident and he interviewed well. The problem was he didn't really seem to understand the position he was interviewing for. But by the end of the interview, he said he understood and we left on good terms. Well he sent me an e-mail right after the interview (like two hours later) to thank me for interviewing him...and had the job details butchered again when he described it.
Another interviewee seemed nervous during the interview process and didn't answer the questions great. But she sent me a handwritten letter a few days afterwards thanking me for the chance to interview and explaining that she was nervous. She mentioned a part of the interview she thought she had messed up and clarified her answer. She also followed up an anecdote I had told during the interview with a story from her own experience. When it came to recommend a candidate, I went with her over the first candidate based on their follow-up correspondence. So those post-interview e-mails and letters can go a long way in deciding who to hire and who to pass on.
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