Sarah@FreeMyCV Blog

What's the point in a Thank You letter?

by Sarah 3. December 2009 11:08
I don't know about you, but thank you letters have never really been my forte. In fact they conjure up screamingly vivid images of my mum's constant nagging of my childhood self; to pen a response to some distant relative or other who had made me the proud owner of a crumpled £5 note in a Christmas card.

The issue that my youthful petulance brought to light, was that as a child I could not always be bothered to find some nice paper, pick up a pen, scribble a heartfelt handwritten note, find a nice envelope, stuff said envelope, find the address, find a stamp, and then find a postbox. Because let's face it, I was a kid, and I'd rather be playing with my Lego set.

Adult me seems to have continued on the same vein of laziness: Although lovely to receive, thank you notes are a complete, out and out faff to orchestrate. Unless you're Jane Austen, or someone of eloquence and respectability and time, of course.

But am I forgetting the most fundamentally important advancement in the technology of letter writing?!! YES! We have been dragged kicking and screaming into the generation of The Internet and thus renders my childhood argument useless. There is no need to be strained by the level of work involved- it's all electronic. An email address is one line long, not 17. You don't need a stamp, or a post box, or a pen, or paper, just a computer and some finger dexterity to tap away at the keys. And voila, within minutes you can thank people to your heart's content.

Phew, well that's all solved- Thank You notes, sent to your inbox in no time. But who might you need to thank??

INTERVIEWERS: that's who.

So you've just been to an interview. It went pretty well, but you know there are a lot of candidates being interviewed. You walk out of the interviewer's sweaty little room thinking that there is nothing more you can do.

But what if there was something more you can do? To solidify that bond; to get yourself back to the top of the pile; to make yourself heard?

By writing a Thank You email to your interviewer you are inoffensively reminding the employer that: "hey, I'm a pretty damn good candidate, so don't forget about me OK?" Make it short, to the point and thank them for taking the time to see you. You could use it to make one final point about why you would be a good fit for the company, or if you didn't cover something that you think may be worthwhile, you could add this in. Don't forget that spell checking is a fundamental in this instance.
 
Is it really worth doing?

Let's put it this way. I get hundreds of emails from users daily. Some send me spam, some send me questions, some send me indecipherable messages, some send me abuse. But some people send me thank yous. And do you know what? it feels darned good. And I keep every one. If you conduct yourself correctly it certainly won't hurt your chances.

So why not give it a try from now on, the extra point of contact could be all you need to take you out of the 'maybe' pile and into pole position...

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About the author

The FreeMyCV experts match your job seeking needs with their knowledge of the UK job sites. As well as saving you time and hassle, the service increases your chance of getting that next job. The service is free of charge.

Sarah's FreeMyCV blog helps you with regular posts about interview advice, CV writing tips, redundancy help and much more.

Please send any feedback to sarah@FreeMyCV.com

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