Post-Interview Letter: Follow up the interview with a letter that will get you the job.
Often people pay little attention to sending a thank you note to the person who interview them. If you are not sending thank you notes and not getting invited back for an interview, there may be a connection between the two.
It is courteous to send a follow-up note to anyone who has spent time helping you with your career or with your career change. I have seen instances in which hiring managers have decided to pass on an applicant who had not followed up with any type of post-interview correspondence.
Some people recommend sending a handwritten letter. I have not seen a handwritten note in a few years. The problem with using paper to send your note is that most hiring managers are set up to use electronic mail and filing.
I see people attaching a letter to an email. Sending a letter as an attachment is kind of like gift-wrapping a gift-wrapped box of fancy candies. The extra gift-wrap is somewhat redundant and a bit inconvenient, since the candy is already in a gift-wrapped box. So trying to create more attractive formatting by using an email attachment for a follow-up letter may just in fact just be inconveniencing the recipient: an email is mail.
Attachments do have their purpose, but I see them more commonly for resumes, contracts, and presentations. The email content serves as the cover letter for the attachments. You might want to consider sending examples of your work as attachments to your thank-you note.
Whatever method you choose for your post-interview correspondence, you want to make four points.
Express your appreciation for the time and interest the person has shown you.
Express your desire to get the job.
Summarize the skills that you have which will enable you to contribute right away.
Create a call to action: for example, ask when you can reconnect.
SAMPLE FOLLOW-UP LETTER
Your information
Street address
City, state, zip
Phone number
Email address
Date
Contact’s information
Name, titles
Company name
Street address
City, state, zip
Phone number
Email address
Dear Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss
Subject: (optional)
It was fantastic to speak with you on Tuesday about the Name of the Position at Name of the Company.
I really want this job.
You did a great job explaining the responsibilities of Name of Position. I have attached examples of work that I have done that show my experience in these areas of responsibility.
- A presentation I gave to XYZ Company from raw data
- A presentation that I created and have tailored for team members to present to their clients
- A presentation featuring tables and graphs that show my graphic presentation skills and my ability to give attention to detail
For the past six years I have taken raw data based on product categories and consumer demographics, consumer conversions, repeat sales, new product-introductions, and even raw data from shipments and used the facts to create executive-level presentations for multiple teams in different departments.
As you and I discussed, I will call on Thursday.
Best regards,
Handwritten signature
Typed signature
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