Thank You Email After Interview: 8 Best Tips (Plus Templates)
So, you have just had that big interview that you were waiting for and now you are in that eager waiting stage full of anxiety. You are probably thinking, “what should I do” or even, “I wish I could have added or said a few extra things during the interview.” You still can – write a thank you email after interview.
Although the interview process has changed over the years, gotten more technical, and can be done through Skype, Google Hangout, or over the phone, one thing has not changed. You should always send a thank you email to the recruiter after interview and add any extra relevant and important information. Let’s look at some of the do’s and don’ts of sending post interview thank you letters.
Do a Post Interview Self-Analysis
Once you have finished your interview, take a few minutes and think about how the interview went. Did it go well? Was it a disaster? Were there some things that could have gone better? What can you improve next time? Think about these and take notes. Add these notes to your job interview lessons learned doc.
Send Your Thank You Email After Interview Within 24 Hours
Make sure to send the interviewer an email within 24 hours to thank him or her for their time. Make sure you reinforce your interest in the position. This can be done by mentioning specific things about the company and position that have piqued your interest and why you feel you are a great fit. Additionally, if you forgot to ask or mention anything important during the interview, you have the chance to add it in your thank you email. The goal of this email is to keep your name and recent interview experience fresh on their mind. If you had a great interview and you follow-up with a nice thank you letter, it is a great way to seal the deal and increase your chances of getting called in to the next phase.
Multiple Interviewers or Panel Interview
If you had multiple interviewers or it was a panel interview, you don’t need to send everyone a tailored email. Feel free to send one email and copy each interviewer in the email. This will suffice.
Email Formatting Tips
When you get ready to send your thank you email after interview, pay special attention to the subject line. HR personnel are busy people and receive a lot of emails and correspondence every day. So, try to make their jobs easier. In the “subject line”, add the position name. Imagine it was for a marketing analyst position. It should look like this Subject: Marketing Analyst Position – Thank You. Titling your email this way automatically gives the interviewer a good idea of what the email is about and shows you are grateful for their time.
Why Are You The Best Person For This Job?
As you are writing your thank you email after interview, remember to reinforce why you are the best person for the job. Highlight some of your main qualifications and why these will help on the job and add value to the company. Also, if you forgot to mention something about one of your relevant skills or something else that you believe would be important for the interviewer to know, mention it here. In case you didn’t send your social media handles before or add them on the online form, feel free to add them in the email. Professionals commonly add articles they have written or other projects they have managed on LinkedIn. If you have a portfolio of some of your work, add the URL here. The more you can prove that YOU ARE THE BEST PERSON FOR THE JOB, the better!
Don’t Send Too Many Follow-ups
OK, you have sent your first post interview thank you letter and it’s been a week and no news. What does this mean? Are you already assuming the worst? One important thing to do after each interview as you are closing the conversation is to ask, “What are the next steps?” This will give you a clear idea of what will happen next. Now, if that time has already gone by and the interviewer was supposed to get back to you by Monday, and it is already the following week, drop the interviewer a short note to see what’s up. You can frame it like this:
Dear Name, I recently interviewed with you for the position of (position name). I have not heard back from you yet, so I just wanted to know if the position is still open and if I am still under consideration for the role. Thank you. Kind regards, (name)
If you send this email and still don’t hear anything back, I would suggest backing off. A thousand things could have happened at the company: the position is no longer a priority, it has been frozen, canceled, the interviewer got fired or who knows what. You just don’t know and may never find out. From my experience, I have had quite a few companies never actually answer me. I find this disrespectful and unprofessional on the interviewers’ part, but it happens. So, if this happens to you, it may be best to redirect your focus on applying to other companies. Don’t beat a dead horse.
Watch Out for Formatting and Grammar Mistakes
As you prepare your thank you email after interview, make sure you review your writing. You may even write it in Word first or even run it through Grammarly to see if everything is correct. DO NOT FORGET TO REVIEW YOUR WORK. I can honestly say that it is a big turn off when you receive follow-up emails or other correspondence from candidates that are poorly written. You will definitely lose points like this. So, quickly correct it and take advantage of services like Grammarly to help make your job easier. Also, don’t forget to make any corrections on Linkedin as well!
Social Media Clean Up
Social media is great, and we spend a lot of time on it, but it can also harm us during the job interview process if we don’t clean it up. Clean up your profile. Don’t share inappropriate pictures, posts, profanity and other things that could work against you. Clean it up. You want to make a good impression and get the new job. As an interviewer myself, I am always curious about some of the new candidates who want to work at my company. If I have been through their resume and find them to be a potential fit, I jump over to Facebook and Linkedin to learn a bit more about them. Many interviewers do this, so clean up your profile and present your best.
Template 1
Hi (Name),
Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. It was such a pleasure to learn more about (company name) and the (position name) role. From our talk, I believe that taking on this challenge would be a great way to start and grow my career, especially with a great company, and from what I have seen so far, a great team!
Since this job is in (specific field, e.g. Marketing, Business, etc), I have added a few links below that showcase my college experience and projects I have worked on outside of school:
- URL (Add link to a project you deem relevant to the position)
- URL (Do you have a design portfolio, Blog, Slideshare, or any other site that shows work relevant to the position. Add them.)
I look forward to hearing from you about the next steps in the hiring process. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions, need additional information or recommendations.
Best regards,
(Name)
Template 2
Dear Hiring Manager:
I would like to thank you for taking your time to interview me this morning regarding the senior product manager position. After our talk, I have a much better idea of the profile you are looking for and the scope of the job. I strongly feel that I am match for the position because of my in-depth knowledge and experience in product management at several startups and having launched multiple products of my own.
It was a pleasure speaking with you. Please contact me if you have any questions or need any clarifications of my experience. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
(Name)
Template 3
Hi (Name),
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me yesterday. It was a pleasure to learn more about (company name) and how it’s making difference in customers’ lives. I am very excited about the opportunity and would love to start my career in (area) with you.
I believe my experience is very much aligned with the opportunity and I would like to share a few side projects I have worked on throughout college and in my free time as these are related to the current position.
- URL (A blog article, project link, Slideshare, or other work you have links to.)
- URL
Thank you again for your time and hope we’ll be in touch soon.
Best,
(Name)
Video Tips
Wrap Up
A thank you email after interview is a must, and it helps solidify yourself as a top candidate. One thing to keep in mind, though, is don’t just write this email for the sake of writing it. Write it to add value, to clarify certain aspects of the interview, to introduce additional things that weren’t mentioned before, etc. As you can see in the templates above, there are links to some of the projects the candidate has worked on before. This adds value and shows your work. Think about ways you can continue to impress the interviewer and demonstrate why you are the best candidate.
I hope that this article helps you land more job offers! To add to the community discussions, share what you normally add in your thank you emails.
For more interview tips, check out the CareerPrep blog and the CareerPrep and English Interviews Youtube Channels!
