Guest post by Peggy McKee of Career Confidential

Tips for writing job interview thank you notes

If the only thing your job interview thank you note says is “Thanks for the interview. I’m looking forward to working with you!”, you have already stood out from the crowd, but you have still wasted a prime opportunity to boost your chance to get the job by nudging that hiring manager farther along toward making you the offer.

How do you do that? By writing a thank you note that looks like this:

Dear Mr. Manager,

I really enjoyed our conversation on Monday. The more I learn, the more excited I am about working for ______ company. I am more convinced than ever that my skills in X, Y, and Z are perfect to help with your A, B, and C challenges. And in fact, I can see that my experience in D, E, and F would bring another advantage to solving your issues with _________. I am really looking forward to discussing this with you again. I’ll call you on Thursday to discuss next steps.

Sincerely,
Your name

This is a rough example of what your email should look like, but you get the idea. You’re taking this additional opportunity to sell yourself for the job and you’re taking active steps to keep the conversation going. It’s not just “thanks, I hope to hear from you”. That doesn’t get you to the next step, but this does.

A few more job interview thank you note tips:

• If the interview didn’t go so well, you can use this opportunity for damage control. Address misconceptions, things you forgot, etc.
• Send your thank you as an email within 24 hours of your meeting.
• Send a personalized note to everyone you spoke with about this job…whether it’s the 3 people on the panel, or the 5 people you spoke with individually.

It’s worth your time to get your job interview follow up done right.