Craft the Perfect Post-Interview Thank You Email

You just finished an interview. It went really well, you are super excited and can’t wait to hear whether you move on to the next steps or, better yet, get the job offer.

So what do you do?  Do you go home and wait?  Maybe apply to some other jobs just in case?
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Do you send a thank you email to your interviewers?

Probably not.  How do I know?  I spent 15 years recruiting, and I know that the majority of the people I interviewed did not email me.  I also know from Hiring Managers that they don’t receive too many.

Which shocks me.  This is job search 101, isn’t it?  But I think most people think it is a worthless exercise.
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But it isn’t. 

​What it does is shows you want this job.  It acts as a reminder of why you are a great fit for the job, how you connected with your interviewer and keeps you in their mind.

And it only takes a minute or two of your time.  So well worth it!

Another reason why people don’t do it, is they just don’t know how.  What should they write, when should they send it and who should they send it to?

Well I’m here to break all that down for you, to make it even easier and to arm you all the answers to these questions.

What Should I Write?

So I'm going to make this really easy for you, I'm going to give you the perfect thank you email template that you can customize:

Opening Paragraph – thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Throw in a compliment or reference some shared hobby/experience/person.
2nd paragraph – how you are the best fit for the role with an outline of 3 skills/experience that you bring to the table, if you can tie it into a current problem or challenge that they are facing, then even better!  You can also throw in a quick example of how your skill set, knowledge and experience will help you exceed their expectations.
Final paragraph – talk about how excited you are to join their team and finish with a call to action (scheduling next steps or offer).

When Do you Send it?

There are a lot of opinions out there on when.  I recommend sending it 24-48 hours later (unless you have some other intel that would change that up). 

And I have some very specific reasons for this and it all has to do with psychology!  I’m going to lay it all out here from the interviewer’s perspective (a perspective I know well since I’ve interviewed SO MANY candidates!)

As an interviewer, when you have a great interview you leave it on a high note and you feel so excited.  So while it wouldn’t hurt to receive a thank you letter shortly after the interview, the significance of the value added isn’t maximized. 

The next day that excitement has waned, it has nothing to do with the candidate and more to do with just normal human emotions.  And each day that goes on it decreases.  But getting a well crafted thank you email will remind you of the great connection you had and bring back those feelings of excitement maximizing the significance of the thank you email value.

Now when I talk about other intel – I'm thinking about the timing of your interview and other interviews. 

If you interview on a Friday and it went amazing, send the Thank You email on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.  So 24-48 business hours after and ensuring it doesn’t get lost in a bunch of email if the hiring manager doesn’t check over the weekend.

If they mention the timing of other candidate interviews then be very strategic in when you email them that thanks.  Say you interview on a Thursday and they mention that it may be a week or two for you to get feedback as they are interviewing candidates the end of next week then I would send the Thank You email the Wednesday.  That way you are reminding them of how wonderful you are right before they are going in to more interviews. 

Who do you send it to?

Every single person that interviewed you.  And you would create a personalized email for each (don’t send 1 thank you email to 2-3 interviewers).
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If you don’t have their email addresses, you have a few options.  The first would be to email the person who coordinated the interviews (typically a recruiter) to ask them to forward the email on.  If you know of anyone’s email addresses within the organization, you can use the same format to email directly.  Or you could hit up LinkedIn and send a connection request!
 
A thank you email is such a small thing and only takes a few minutes of your time.  The benefit it adds to your job search is tremendous.  It increases the likelihood of you getting hired.  But it also opens up a dialogue meaning that it increases the likelihood that if you don’t get the job that you can receive feedback and even maybe convert the relationship into a networking one!