Thursday, August 22, 2013

Avoiding the awkward "Thank You" letter

I’ve been blasted this week hence the lack of tweets and blogs…...but here I am!  This weeks topic is kind of a funny one but really if you’re looking for a job it’s not funny at all.  It’s about the awkward interview or meeting follow up.

Now, before I get into this….NONE of these examples are from people who’ve interviewed w/ me recently.  Been talking to a lot of people and it’s not cool to talk out of school.  Ok?  Ok.

We all know that the post interview follow up is really important.  To me, it doesn’t really matter if it’s email or a written letter...you’ve gotta follow up and say thank you for the interview.  No brainer right?  Well...unless you send a really uncomfortable follow up.  What does that mean?  Here are a few examples:

Spelling the persons name wrong - Do I need to even say anything else here?  Right

Using the wrong pronoun - Um yeah.  Referring to a he as a she, she as a he….whatever, not the kind of thing you want to screw up.  I’ve seen it.  #fail

Emailing the wrong address - Nothing takes the wow factor away than having someone else forward you the “thank you” note.  If you’re going to email, make sure it’s to the correct address

Assuming you’ll get the offer - Confidence is great, arrogance is annoying.  Your thank you note is just a thank you….that’s it, nothing more.  Don’t assume anything just be nice.

There are a million other things you can do wrong here so just play it safe.  Send a polite and timely follow up….nothing more, nothing less and wait to hear about next steps.

More soon, I’ll try to pick up the pace.  And, as always good luck out there...

1 comment:

  1. Any chance you would be inspired to write about working with hiring managers and changing recruiting culture from within?

    ReplyDelete