PSA: Interviewing? You Must Nail The “Thank You” Email

Aug 20

PSA: Interviewing? You must nail the “Thank You” email

Ok, I know that image is a little harsh but when I saw it on vacation last month I had to pull over and get a pic. I’ve seen some brilliant people needlessly derail their interview process by not paying proper attention to this seemingly simple thing, so let's get into it.

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Train Wreck

As a hiring manager, I’ve had my name spelled wrong, my company name spelled wrong, the wrong company name used, and more spelling/grammatical errors than I can count. However, what upset me most was the generic/no effort thank you, which goes a little something like this:

Thanks for your time yesterday. Looking forward to seeing you again soon. I’m confident I can make a real impact on your team and am excited about moving to the next step in the process. Thanks.

Sent from my iPhone, please excuse any typos

What’s so bad about that?

Honestly, everything. Before we analyze the text, let’s take a minute to discuss how we got here. Let’s break down the process:

Hiring manager or recruiter spent hours trying to find good people- maybe went through 100 profiles on LinkedIn and found ten that looked good. Time spent: 4 hours
Emailed all ten, and phone screened the ones that replied, let’s say eight. Time spent: 9 hours
Of the eight phone screens, four were good enough to bring in for an in-person interview. You’re one of those four. Time spent: 4 hours
Of the four live interviews, maybe there are two people that really fit and have a shot at getting an offer.

So at this point, the hiring manager and/or recruiter has spent about 17 hours to get two qualified people, one of whom is Mr. iPhone above. And let's not forget the time he took to get to this place!

Why are these emails so important?

Put simply, they tell the hiring manager what it will be like to work with you. They demonstrate your skill level. A first interview is like a first date- it should represent the very best of you. What your email tells the hiring manager is: this is the very best level of communication you can expect from me. To clients, co-workers, prospects- this is what you’re going to get on my best day (meaning most of the time it won’t even be this good).

What does good look like?

What I won’t do here is write it all out- I know you wouldn’t copy and paste it, but some knucklehead would, so I’ll give you the ingredients:

Don’t thank me for my time. Instead, express how happy you are that we were able to “share some time together.” This puts you in the same plane as the hiring manager and shows that you’re not intimidated by people in positions of authority.
Demonstrate you listened to me. Did I share why people succeed or fail at this job? Did I mention our team or company goals for the year? Or what about what’s most important to me in finding the right person? Give that back to me here! People love the feeling of being heard and seeing their own words in print. Plus, it shows me you know how to listen in a high-pressure situation.
Give me something I can use. You showed above that you heard me. Now demonstrate what you can do with that information. Tell me a short story about how you crushed a similar challenge in the past, or if you haven’t done it already, tell me what your plan would be if I gave you the shot to do it here. This section doesn’t need to be overly long but is the most critical part of the email. It either gives me comfort and confidence that you can deliver on what you said during the interview, or gives me pause that you either don’t understand or don’t know how to deal with the challenges I expressed.
End with a recommendation. Based on where we are, what should come next? Others you should meet with? Reference check? Take the initiative- don’t wait for me to tell you. And if the next step involves a meeting, throw out two options. Even if your calendar is wide open, this creates the impression of scarcity and also gives me a starting point when looking at my calendar.
Check the simple stuff. That stupid “sent from my iPhone”? Get rid of that- and never send these from your phone anyway! Read it out loud, twice, slowly. This is something that took you time to craft… don’t let a simple grammatical error take away from your message.

The Payoff

A great follow up email deepens the conversation and increases your credibility with the hiring manager. If you’re equally qualified as the other candidate- this could be the thing that tips the scale in your favor. Finally, it’s the beginning of an agreed-upon plan of attack when you get the job.

And since this is a PSA, I’ll end with the one I heard most often as a kid:

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About the Author

Jason is passionate about SaaS and HR Tech in particular. Loves to connect the right people with the right opportunities. Leadership development junkie.