A well-written thank you letter can have a positive affect on one's candidacy. Despite this, many job seekers do not write one. Prepare a note - it just might save your candidacy.
Experienced job seekers take an hour or more to prepare a brief, tailored thank you note for each interviewer. But beware: a poorly written note with just one spelling error will almost certainly kill a good interview.
Take your time, be clear, to the point, and use spelling and grammar check. The contents denote your social and communications skills.
The purpose of the note, apart from thanking the interviewer for taking time to meet with you, is to stand out from the crowd and to strengthen your candidacy.
Examples of a conservative approach and contents for an effective thank you letter follow:
• Thank the interviewer for taking the time to meet with you.
• Reiterate your interest and excitement in the position and the company.
• Help the interviewer to remember you by identifying a personal connection made during the interview.
• Remind the interviewer of one or two key strengths you believe are relevant and likely not possessed by competing candidates. This should be very brief and is optional. A lengthy repetition of your résumé and what was discussed during the interview could be viewed negatively.
• Include a key experience or accomplishment you forgot to mention if you believe that it is relevant to the position requirements.
• Keep the note brief and less than half a page.
• Attach personal or professional information requested by an interviewer or volunteered by you during the interview. Material can include a favorite restaurant, an extract of a report you previously prepared, or other supporting information.
A separate note should be sent to each person met. If for some reason, all names or contact information were not obtained, send the note to a key person whose contact information you know, and ask that person to pass along your appreciation to the other members of the interview team.
Thank you note should be sent within one day after the interview to achieve maximum effectiveness. Timely and well-written notes may influence the decision to invite a job seeker back for another round of interviews and they are expected by interviewers.
A delay in receiving one can gnaw at an interviewer. Some job seekers prefer to send a handwritten note to make it more personal, even though it may take three to five days to reach the recipient.
In today's environment, speed is critical and that makes e-mail the fastest and most effective means of delivery. If you received the e-mail address of an interviewer, send the note via e-mail. If your interview was on a Friday, a paper note could be acceptable if it arrives by Monday.
If you are risk averse or believe that you did well during your interview, then remain in conservative mode. Susan believed that she established a great rapport with Scott and conveyed with convincing vignettes that she possessed the required experience for the position.
Based on that assumption, she sent a friendly thank-you note, including a reminder of the Paris connection and a clear statement of excitement.
A Risky Thank You Note
There is another approach that falls into the high-risk, high-reward category. If the hiring manager described a major problem, such as a need to develop a business plan or to train a project team, you may wish to take the time and attach a draft solution with your thank-you note.
Let's say the hiring manager complained about a business problem; you can attach a description of the problem as you understood it and provide a well-thought-out approach to its solution.
Your proposed solution would have additional credibility if you can say you applied a similar solution to a similar problem in a previous job.
In response to the need for a business plan, you can develop a detailed outline of the plan's contents with enough substance to impress the reader. Again, cite previous experience preparing similar plans.
If the hiring manager mentioned the need for expertise in developing a complex financial spreadsheet, you can attach an example of one you completed for an important project being sure to remove confidential information.
The risk of attaching these types of documents is that you could be viewed as presumptuous or you could be way off the mark on your recommendations.
However, very few job seekers submit attachments to a thank you note and an impressive document that comes close to the expectations of an interviewer could catapult you to the top of the candidate list.
If you are generally a risk taker or if you believe that your interview did not go well, this approach could give you a second chance.
Article Source:EzineArticles.com
Experienced job seekers take an hour or more to prepare a brief, tailored thank you note for each interviewer. But beware: a poorly written note with just one spelling error will almost certainly kill a good interview.
Take your time, be clear, to the point, and use spelling and grammar check. The contents denote your social and communications skills.
The purpose of the note, apart from thanking the interviewer for taking time to meet with you, is to stand out from the crowd and to strengthen your candidacy.
Examples of a conservative approach and contents for an effective thank you letter follow:
• Thank the interviewer for taking the time to meet with you.
• Reiterate your interest and excitement in the position and the company.
• Help the interviewer to remember you by identifying a personal connection made during the interview.
• Remind the interviewer of one or two key strengths you believe are relevant and likely not possessed by competing candidates. This should be very brief and is optional. A lengthy repetition of your résumé and what was discussed during the interview could be viewed negatively.
• Include a key experience or accomplishment you forgot to mention if you believe that it is relevant to the position requirements.
• Keep the note brief and less than half a page.
• Attach personal or professional information requested by an interviewer or volunteered by you during the interview. Material can include a favorite restaurant, an extract of a report you previously prepared, or other supporting information.
A separate note should be sent to each person met. If for some reason, all names or contact information were not obtained, send the note to a key person whose contact information you know, and ask that person to pass along your appreciation to the other members of the interview team.
Thank you note should be sent within one day after the interview to achieve maximum effectiveness. Timely and well-written notes may influence the decision to invite a job seeker back for another round of interviews and they are expected by interviewers.
A delay in receiving one can gnaw at an interviewer. Some job seekers prefer to send a handwritten note to make it more personal, even though it may take three to five days to reach the recipient.
In today's environment, speed is critical and that makes e-mail the fastest and most effective means of delivery. If you received the e-mail address of an interviewer, send the note via e-mail. If your interview was on a Friday, a paper note could be acceptable if it arrives by Monday.
If you are risk averse or believe that you did well during your interview, then remain in conservative mode. Susan believed that she established a great rapport with Scott and conveyed with convincing vignettes that she possessed the required experience for the position.
Based on that assumption, she sent a friendly thank-you note, including a reminder of the Paris connection and a clear statement of excitement.
A Risky Thank You Note
There is another approach that falls into the high-risk, high-reward category. If the hiring manager described a major problem, such as a need to develop a business plan or to train a project team, you may wish to take the time and attach a draft solution with your thank-you note.
Let's say the hiring manager complained about a business problem; you can attach a description of the problem as you understood it and provide a well-thought-out approach to its solution.
Your proposed solution would have additional credibility if you can say you applied a similar solution to a similar problem in a previous job.
In response to the need for a business plan, you can develop a detailed outline of the plan's contents with enough substance to impress the reader. Again, cite previous experience preparing similar plans.
If the hiring manager mentioned the need for expertise in developing a complex financial spreadsheet, you can attach an example of one you completed for an important project being sure to remove confidential information.
The risk of attaching these types of documents is that you could be viewed as presumptuous or you could be way off the mark on your recommendations.
However, very few job seekers submit attachments to a thank you note and an impressive document that comes close to the expectations of an interviewer could catapult you to the top of the candidate list.
If you are generally a risk taker or if you believe that your interview did not go well, this approach could give you a second chance.
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