Crafting Effective Post-Interview Thank-You Letters

Why do I need to write a follow-up email after interview? Candidate search, screening, and arranging job interviews all take a lot of the recruiter&rsquo;s time and effort. Once you get a chance to charm your potential employer during an interview, the least you can do to show appreciation for the opportunity - regardless of how you think the meeting went - is to write a &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; note after interview. An advanced version of a thank-you card, a follow-up email after interview shows much more than just how thankful you are for the time the recruiters found for you - it helps you demonstrate your interest in the position and give your future colleagues a nice and sweet demo of how professional you are in written communication. Even more, you can use the &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; interview email as an opportunity to remind the recruiter about your qualifications and once again state how great you are for this position. In this article, we&rsquo;ll go over the key elements of a great &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; note after interview, and learn how to write a &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; email after an interview with the help of some great examples. Let&rsquo;s get thankful! Key Elements of a &ldquo;Thank You&rdquo; Letter Writing a &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; note after interview may not be something you typically do. However, it&rsquo;s significantly easier to do than it may sound. Here are a few key components you should include in the email - or, alternatively, a LinkedIn message - you send to a recruiter after an interview: Subject line Just like with any other subject line, the subject of your &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; letter should clearly and concisely explain what your message is about. Here are some examples: QA Engineer interview: Thank you for your time Thank you for the interview! Looking forward to the next steps Thank you for the interview experience! A few things to remember: Stay optimistic. If you have doubts about the success of the interview, keep them to yourself until you hear the feedback from the recruiter.Don&rsquo;t be rude. Even if the interview didn&rsquo;t go as well as you expected, don&rsquo;t go for &ldquo;Thanks for nothing&rdquo; or similar lines - it&rsquo;s not the type of &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; letter we&rsquo;re going for. {{banner_1}} Personalized Greeting At this point, you&rsquo;ve seen your recruiter&rsquo;s name at least once in the email signature and met them in person, so vague openings like &ldquo;Dear Sir / Madam&rdquo; won&rsquo;t do the job anymore. Open your email with one of these lines: Dear Mrs. Roan, Hello Mr. Bellamy, Hello Sabrina, (only if during the interview you agreed to call each other by first names) Hi Donald. A few things to remember: Stay professional. Even if you feel that you&rsquo;ve made a great personal connection during the interview, remember that business correspondence should be focused on&hellip;well, business. Double-check the spelling. Don&rsquo;t let the good impression you&rsquo;ve left be ruined by a typo or autocorrect. Note of Appreciation Start your email text with a sincere, polite, and professional note of appreciation. It can look like one of these: Once again, I would like to thank you for the interview opportunity. Thank you for the time you&rsquo;ve taken to hold our meeting this Monday. I really appreciate the interview opportunity you&rsquo;ve provided. A few things to remember: Don&rsquo;t overdo it. &ldquo;Words cannot express the extent of my gratitude&rdquo; or &ldquo;I shall be eternally grateful for the light you shone upon me&rdquo; types of lines are best left for more dramatic correspondence styles. Be thankful for all the good things. If the recruiter changed the interview time upon your request, waited for you because you were stuck in traffic, or agreed to hold the interview online instead of offline, mention it and stress that you are grateful for it. Recap of Qualifications Showing gratitude is the main reason for sending the &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; note, but it is not the only one. Another important task you have with it is to show that you are actually a great fit for the position - that is if you actually are. Use the opportunity to remind the recruiter about your strong sides with one of these phrases: I will be happy to put my 10+ years of experience in sales to good use in your company. I&rsquo;m now even more confident that my degree in Engineering will be a great asset to the company. I know that the job is challenging, but I&rsquo;m sure that my previous experience at Google will give me a good competitive edge. A few things to remember: Stay honest. Don&rsquo;t mention the qualifications that you don&rsquo;t actually have. Sure, this &ldquo;white lie&rdquo; could get you the job, but it may just as easily get you fired.Stay relevant. Only mention the qualifications and achievements that can actually be helpful for the job - or, at least, elaborate on how your bowling trophies will make you a good manager. Prompt to Take the Next Step Truth is that the recruitment process can get messy sometimes. Recruiters in big companies have to juggle hundreds of applications, sometimes for 5+ positions at the time. This is why a &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; email after the interview can also serve as a reminder and actually help move your communication forward. To show how eager you are to continue the hiring process, you can use one of these phrases: Please let me know if I need to provide copies of any certificates or diplomas mentioned in my CV I&rsquo;ll be happy to provide references from my previous workplaces if necessary. I&rsquo;ll gladly complete the test task you mentioned during the interview. I&rsquo;m looking forward to your feedback on the interview. A few things to remember: Mind the timing. Don&rsquo;t send the email right after the interview. Ideally, a &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; note should be sent the next business day, or, if you forgot to do it, the day after the date your recruiter promised to reply - and didn&rsquo;t. Focus on one thing. Don&rsquo;t offer to send all the documents, provide references, and complete the test task in one email - this looks both desperate and overwhelming. Contact Information The goal of the &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; email is to be contacted by the potential employer, so it&rsquo;s crucial to provide full - and correct - contact info. Don&rsquo;t just rely on the &ldquo;From&rdquo; field of the email - messages get forwarded, screenshot and even printed out, so make sure that your signature line features all the ways you can be contacted. Optionally, you can include contact info in the email body, too. Here&rsquo;s how it can look: Feel free to call me at (909) 555-3023 if you have any additional questions. My home phone number is (230) 555-0191. I am available from 9 AM to 10 PM on weekdays. Best, Roberto Johnsonroberto.j.johshon@gmail.com+1 (342) 555-5532 Still not sure how to write a &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; email after an interview? The next section has a few good samples you can use. &ldquo;Thank You&rdquo; Letter Samples Here are some &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; email after interview examples you can send a day or two after the meeting with the recruiter: Short &ldquo;Thank You&rdquo; Note Great for the situations when you don&rsquo;t feel that a lot of things should be discussed after the interview, a short and sweet &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; note is a nice gesture that can help you score additional points. {{template_1580}} Look into Short &ldquo;Thank You&rdquo; Email Detailed &ldquo;Thank You&rdquo; Note This type of &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; note is great for situations when, during the interview, you promised to provide more info or left some questions unanswered. If that&rsquo;s the case, be sure to send the interview follow-up no later than the following day. Subject: Re: Cardiologist interview. Thank you for your time. Here is the info you requested Body: Hello Dr. Livingtone, Thank you for the time you dedicated to our interview yesterday. I am thrilled to have a chance to work at Williamsburg Memorial Hospital and will be happy to apply my skills and experience to help the patients there. Here are a few things I promised to share after the interview: My scientific publications from the past ten years: medicallink.com100+ 5-star reviews from patients at my last clinic: reviewwebsite.com A letter of recommendation from Dr. Cuirass, my previous supervisor, is attached to this email. Please let me know what the next steps are - I am really looking forward to moving to Williamsburg. All the best, Dr. Curt Shtopperdr.c.shtopper@detroithealth.com(992) 555-1023 Informal &ldquo;Thank You&rdquo; Note If you feel that you&rsquo;ve really connected with the recruiter - or if the communication style in the company you&rsquo;re interviewing for is more laid-back and relaxed - you can send a more informal &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; email. {{template_1581}} Look into Informal &ldquo;Thank You&rdquo; Note Email Formal &ldquo;Thank You&rdquo; Letter If you feel that the communication style in the company is more reserved and formal, be sure to reflect that in the &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; interview email you are sending. Subject: A note of appreciation for the interview opportunity Body: Dear Ms. Kelcey, Allow me to express my sincere gratitude for the job interview opportunity. I am now even more confident that my extensive knowledge in the field of insurance can become a valuable asset to your distinguished company. Should you need additional information regarding my qualifications, please feel free to reach out to me via email or phone. I am looking forward to the next steps of the interview process. Yours sincerely, Chris Martin, chriscoldplay@househigginbotham.com +1 (555) 555-5555 Сonclusion Sending a &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; interview email is more than just a polite nod to the recruiter - it&rsquo;s a display of how passionate you are about the position you are being interviewed for and a demonstration of how professional you can be. Just like the proper choice of how to respond to interview invitation, this short email can make a huge difference. Make use of the &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; email after interview examples listed here, or craft your own ones using the structure and tips we provided. Remember that a well-written &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; note sent within 1-2 business days from the interview date can significantly increase your chances of moving to the next stage of the interview process. For this case make sure to use TextPie. Happy job hunting!