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So you really want to nail that job interview? Then you better nail the follow up note, too.
A thoughtful, well-written thank you note after a job interview will give you a leg up on the competition and will offer an opportunity to remind hiring managers just how awesome you are.
But a quick and standard thank you will not fly, says Allan Jones, former Ziprecruiter CMO.
“There is nothing worse than having an amazing conversation with a candidate only to receive the thank you note equivalent of a limp handshake,” says Jones, who is now CEO of outsourced HR firm Bambee.
In fact, today’s employers say a thank you note is an absolute expectation today.
“It’s not just good manners,” former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Kate White, told Fast Company.”The interviewer is judging your passion for the job based on whether you send a note and what you say in it.”
Here’s how to write the perfect thank you note.
Take notes during the interview
Think about that follow-up even before you do the interview. That means taking notes during the interview to help you create a memorable thank you afterward. According to this recently published article in Fast Company, it’s important to know what you learned during the small talk portion of the interview. Did you have anything in common with the hiring manager? A hobby you shared?
Write down any important points you discussed and whether they’re facing any problems as an organization that you can help with. Did they have questions that required a bit more thought?
Think, too, about the qualifications you really wanted in a candidate and whether they were skeptical of anything on your resume. Also, ensure you have the correct email address for each interviewer and the correct spelling of their names. These specific recollections will prevent a generic thank you and transform your note to one that impresses a hiring manager, according to this previously published piece in Fast Company.
Stick to an email message and be prompt
For years, hand-written notes were encouraged. But in the fast-moving, post-pandemic work world, email is fine these days because people are working both inside and outside of the office these days. Your note might otherwise be lost in the shuffle at the office or feel creepy if it ends up at someone’s home address.
If you can, send your note promptly—within 24 hours of the interview, advised Domenick Cilea, president of Springboard Public Relations. “Not sending an email—whether you are interested in the position or not—is unprofessional,” he said.
When you finish your interview, head home as soon as you can to write your thank-you note. Send the note too late, and the hiring manager might assume you weren’t going to send a note and could have rejected you for it.
That said, don’t rush it, Alison Green, career expert and author of How to Get a Job said.
Don’t write it ahead of time and then press send right after you walk out of the interview. It’s a lost opportunity to personalize your note and build a relationship, she says. “It drains much of the significance of the gesture and turns it into one that conveys only, ‘I’m checking a thank you off my list,’” Green suggested.
Make it personal
While you might feel compelled to cut and paste any of the 1.4 million other thank-you email templates you found on Google, hiring managers can spot a generic letter. Don’t underestimate the power that comes from screening recruits all day, every day, and make your thank you personal and show your personality. Jones of Bambee says writing an attention-grabbing thank you note is an art and an extension of the original interview.
“Engage me, say something exciting, stand out, and tell me why you are the one we need. Show me your personality,” he says. “Make me want to talk to you on a daily basis.”
Even more importantly, remember that employee-company compatibility is not a one-way street. You need to make sure that we are the right fit for you as well. A company that embraces your personality upfront is a good sign of a long-term partnership.
Jones warns candidates NOT to write a generic letter like this:
Dear Mr. Jones,
Thank you for your time…{{reiterate job description}}…{{reiterate interest in position}}…blah, blah, blah.
I look forward to hearing from…blah.
Thank you again,
Uncreative Candidate
Jones gives a good example of a memorable, candid, personal and thoughtful note:
Allan,
After sharing time with you yesterday, it’s clear why your team speaks of you so fondly. I got a candid look at who you are as a human and how your passion and recent introspection will propel you from a great CEO to a spectacular one. I say that despite the fact that you found it appropriate to reheat leftover fish for lunch prior to our interview. Though I think it’s an office faux-pas I can get past. My sense of smell isn’t that great anyway.
More importantly, I see the opportunity for you to reach your full operating potential and be able to sincerely focus your time on innovation and the success of Bambee. I’d like to be the one to assist you on that journey. The prospect of this role calls to my drive and desire to be uniquely extraordinary and skilled in my own work.
The executive assistant you need is not the standard, but the exception. I have no doubt, given the opportunity I can be the work/life operations manager, noise reducer, friction smoother, and general magic maker you have been missing. Just please don’t make me reheat your fish.
I think this could be an amazing partnership and I’d like to think you agree. If yes, I look forward to discussing the next steps.
Best,
Candidate who got hired
Jones says he went on to hire this candidate. Not only were they the most qualified for the job, but they were also confident enough to add snark, sincerity, and their own professional goals to their thank you note, he says. “And it’s that kind of confidence that makes employees successful at my company.”
He warns that not all snark is the same. Don’t be a jerk. “Well-intentioned commentary, even when out of the box, is often well-received by the right people,” he says.
Send notes to each interviewer
If multiple people interviewed you, writing each of them a note will show a level of care that helps you stand out among most candidates, according to this Fast Company report. Make sure the notes do not appear copied and pasted. Personalize those messages if you can by adding bits of details.
This shows strong interpersonal skills, which are vital in today’s workplace culture.
Jessica Hernandez, founder of Great Resumes Fast, says it’s a good idea to ensure you leave no one out.
“I’ve heard from many job hunters that thanking everyone, from the receptionist to the CEO, was key to putting their best foot forward after an interview,” she says. “One of my clients who did this reported that even though he wasn’t hired right then, he was asked to come back a few months later to interview for an even better role.”
You might even consider adding team members you met throughout the process to your LinkedIn network, says Stock. She suggests a short and sweet note along the lines of: It was a pleasure meeting you in the context of my interviews for the accountant position. Looking forward to connecting here.
“Even if you don’t get the job—you never know when your paths will cross again,” she says.
Don’t use an overly formal greeting
There’s a delicate balance with being too formal in a letter. If you’re too stiff, it actually backfires, according to Hari Kolam, CEO of the talent acquisition platform Findem.
“Remember that there’s an actual person reading this letter and put yourself in their shoes,” said Kolam.
Yet being too casual is problematic too: Six in 10 HR professionals say they have a problem with starting out with “hi.”
Show gratitude and stay positive
The best way to start off any interview follow-up note is to thank the person for their time and consideration. They told you more about the opportunity and whether it would be a good move for you. So even if you plan to withdraw from the running, show gratitude for the opportunity.
Refresh their memory
A good note will remind hiring managers why you’re interested in the job. It doesn’t have to be a long drawn out explanation, but ensure that it’s extremely clear that you want this job and why. Was there something about the job that resonated with you? Then add that detail. Being authentic matters.
Write this note with influence in mind but don’t make it a commercial for you as a candidate, according to this previously published article in Fast Company. Instead, use it as an opportunity to provide honest reflections about how you felt about the team and the culture. Show them why you’re the right person for the job—qualifications, connection and cultural fit.
This follow-up is the perfect chance to reconnect with your interviewers and really remind them of who you are and the connection you made during your conversation. Take all those little details that you learned about the person to personalize your message and make your note memorable.
You don’t necessarily need to summarize your qualifications but instead focus on the parts of your résumé that piqued the interest of each interviewer. Notice what each person gets excited about and then reiterate those points in your note—providing a great reminder of why you’re the person they want in this particular job.
Ease any concerns
If there are concerns that you might be under or overqualified for the job, you can abate their concerns and provide examples.
Yet keep it positive. Show how you’re already working on remedying any weaknesses. And if you do it right, you may actually boost your odds for getting the job because you’re leaving a positive impression on the hiring manager. The note itself is your opportunity to show your soft skills—such as organization, time management, and communication.
Amanda Augustine, career expert for TopResume, warns against the “trust me” approach. “Trust me, if I get the job, I’ll figure out what I need to do to get the job done,” she wrote. Employers see your potential, but they want some proof of your abilities. Augustine suggests explaining instead why the role makes sense for you and how you’re taking steps to fill the gaps.
Demonstrate humility and self-awareness, adds Vanessa Stock, cofounder and chief people officer of Pitch, a collaborative software maker. If you didn’t feel that you did well in the interview, don’t use the note to correct answers you got wrong or make excuses for your performance. “Instead, use the thank you note to demonstrate that you are aware of your potential shortcomings, and eager to prove to the team that you are willing to learn,” she says.
Tell them something they didn’t know
If there’s something else that could boost the odds of landing the job, then put it in your note. It should be brief—a line at most—but could add an additional qualification you didn’t discuss in the interview or could highlight something about you that the organization really cares about.
Keep it brief and avoid unnecessary mistakes
You don’t want to write a long letter or draft an essay. Don’t ramble, overshare, and take a lot of your readers’ time.
Proofread each note to ensure it conveys you and the personality you presented during the interviews. And boost your chances by avoiding small mistakes whether it’s misspellings or someone’s title. Use spell check and reread the message to ensure it reads smart. The same goes for your cover letter: 76% of the HR respondents in a ResumeLab survey said they’d automatically reject a cover letter if it had typos or spelling mistakes.
Donna Svei, veteran recruiter and résumé expert of the AvidCareerist, recommends exchanging business cards during the interviews. “No one walks around with business cards that misspell their name. No one,” she shared.
Remember that saying thank you is good for everyone
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One of the most daunting aspects of jumping into the job market is presenting your background and skills effectively on your résumé, cover letter, and in interviews. In addition to highlighting your proficiency in specific platforms and tools, you also need to think about how other experiences—even ones you may take for granted—can advance your career.
Though 20% of Americans are bilingual and able to hold conversations in more than one language, they may not have access to opportunities that are designed to make use of this skill. According to Diana Sanchez-Vega, a career coach who specializes in assisting multilingual job candidates land positions, companies can get better at reaching multilingual candidates by being clearer in their job descriptions and overtly designating fluency in languages other than English as a skill.
Sanchez-Vega, who also works as a consultant for organizations, compares multilingualism to an IT skill that requires specific knowledge of a software, meaning that it should be compensated properly. “The way for organizations to reach out to these folks is by really saying, ‘we value your language skills as much as we value other skills,’” says Sanchez-Vega.
If you’re someone who speaks multiple languages, you can leverage that skill to get a remote job working within international markets or interacting with non-English speaking populations. Here are some tips on how to leverage your multilingual skills in the job market, or to get a promotion at your current job:
Specify Your Level of Proficiency
Sanchez-Vega says that you should include the languages you know at the top of your résumé and specify which language(s) you speak natively, as well as your varying levels of proficiency for the other languages.
For fields such as medicine or academia, you may need to take specific exams to prove your language ability. Sanchez-Vega says that for her clients, she doesn’t focus on them having an exceptionally advanced level of reading comprehension, but rather prioritizes their ability to hold a conversation and establish rapport. However, she says that to be a translator in more regulated fields of healthcare and education, you would need a third-party proficiency assessment. For example, she says that a nurse who wants to work a “dual role” with English and Spanish speaking patients would need to take an exam.
When you are compiling your résumé, you should emphasize the projects and instances in which you used your bilingual skills to give companies a clearer picture of how it can benefit employers. Alejandra Mielke, a career coach who specializes in Latinx applicants, says that someone who was able to conduct interviews in multiple languages should clearly state that, because it’s a skill that could easily be leveraged in a workplace.
Reframe Your Experience
While knowing how to speak and write in two languages is a technical skill, it can also be reframed more broadly, since it provides you with an understanding of other cultures. “Having access to two systems of communication goes beyond the language; it includes the culture,” says Mielke. “In addition to being able to speak, write, and read two languages, you also have access to two cultures.”
In your job interview or cover letter, you can present your multilingualism as something that can be practically used, but also as a lived experience that has influenced your worldview and the ways in which you interact with people. Mielke says that bilingual or multilingual individuals should make sure to indicate if they worked abroad on their cover letter because those experiences can also indicate a knowledge of multiple cultures.
Sanchez-Vega also says that people who emigrated to the U.S. should use their résumé to share their story of integrating into American society and list previous international roles in chronological order. This could help you explain any professional gaps, while also painting a fuller picture of who you are as a job candidate.
Dr. Sajani Barot, a pharmacist and founder of The Skin Consult, a virtual skincare platform, says that she’s been able to apply her knowledge of Hindi and Gujarati throughout her career. When starting out as a pharmacist, she was able to assist patients who spoke those languages. And now, as an entrepreneur, she leverages her skills to connect with workers in India’s growing sector of outsourced IT.
As talent becomes increasingly outsourced, knowing how to jump between cultures and languages can come in handy—especially in the tech sector. Andres Garcia, cofounder and CTO of healthcare software company Florence Healthcare, is a native Spanish speaker who learned English and Portuguese. His language trajectory has helped him better connect with teams that Florence Healthcare works with that may not fluently speak English.
“I feel that being a bilingual person … I have the empathy for a remote team that is not native to English,” he says. “They conduct their business with us in English and I’m aware of the effort it requires.”
Find Opportunities and Leverage Your Skills For Compensation
To find multilingual opportunities, applicants should continuously network across industries on LinkedIn, says Mielke. Once you find a multilingual opportunity, you should make sure that you’re properly compensated.
Through researching how much your translating skills are worth and backing your requests with data, you can make a compelling case for your target salary. After securing the position, you should make sure that the company sticks to the job description and sets proper boundaries. For instance, you aren’t suddenly a cultural ambassador, unless that was previously specified.
“Unless you have been brought up as a marketing expert in multicultural or diverse markets, your job [as a culturally diverse employee] is not to explain how members of your cultural group think or act, for example,” Mielke says. “Your company should respect your job description and not assume an individual who belongs to a culturally diverse group is going to be the translator, the interpreter, or an expert in that culture just because this individual is a member of that group.”
As remote work becomes the new normal for many fields, companies need people who can connect with others. “Now that we’re working remotely, I find that communication is even more essential,” Dr. Barot says, “Having people who [are bilingual and] also understand [different cultures] can really make communication a lot easier.”
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