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Since I lost my job I have attended tons of seminars on how to find employment. I have spent hours revising my resume and making my cover letter link directly to a specific job opening.
Recently I have got some interviews. Within 24 hours after the interview I always send a personalized THANKYOU LETTER. I try to remind the person I sent the letter to about a few things we talked about and describe again why I would be the perfect person for the job. While I have sent out countless thank you letters through the years, never once have they been acknowledged by the people I wrote to. Am I wasting my time?
What is your experience with people reading and responding to thankyou letters?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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As a hiring manager I always appreciate the thank you letter by email or better yet, a hand signed and delivered card. Still,
if the person was not the best it's not going to make a difference. My mind is made up before I would get the thank you
and usually we are in the reference verification stage before making an offer. I don't reply, it would just take too long since
there are usually at least 15-20 interviewed.
Unfortunately, thus far the only reply has been, "Thanks for interviewing! We thought you were great, but we've decided to rearrange the current staff and hire nobody. Good luck!"
That being said, you may as well send them a thank you email anyway since it doesn't hurt.
you are not wasting your time. However, it really is not a correspondence that you should expect to get a reply when you send it. Sort of like replying "ok". There is no real purpose. If they have made a decision, you will get a reply with that information. If they have not, you may get one that says "thanks, still thinking" but honestly, the thank you is sent to thank the person and remind them of who you are, not to solicit a response.
I have received replies and I once got a thank you letter after my interview from the hiring manager (which is incredibly rare). None of those ended up being offers however so don't take a reply or even a thank you letter to mean anything.
I got 2 offers this week, both from jobs I didn't send thank you notes to. Just saying. I think it's a nice gesture, especially if you'd like to be considered for other opportunities with the company - but I feel like they've made their mind up about you before you even get to the point of writing a thank you in most cases.
Always send a thank you letter. It used to be the 'edge' that got you the job. Now it is expected.
It depends on the job you are interviewing for whether or not to do a hand written thank you note. While some hiring managers may find it nice, others won't bother to read it. I have heard both sides of the story. IMO email and be done with it.
Since I lost my job I have attended tons of seminars on how to find employment. I have spent hours revising my resume and making my cover letter link directly to a specific job opening.
Recently I have got some interviews. Within 24 hours after the interview I always send a personalized THANKYOU LETTER. I try to remind the person I sent the letter to about a few things we talked about and describe again why I would be the perfect person for the job. While I have sent out countless thank you letters through the years, never once have they been acknowledged by the people I wrote to. Am I wasting my time?
What is your experience with people reading and responding to thankyou letters?
It doesn't mean anything either way. I sent a thank you letter to one person and they responded and I was hired
I sent a thank you letter to someone else and they didn't respond back and I was still hired
It would be great to hear from actual hiring managers and recruiters for their perspective on thank you letters. Am I wasting my time?
Yesterday I spent half the day crafting four thank you letters trying to make each of them look different and finding things I talked about with each person to discuss and find a way to remind them about my skills and education. (I had talked to four different people at the company. each for 45 minutes.)
It would be great to hear from actual hiring managers and recruiters for their perspective on thank you letters. Am I wasting my time?
Yesterday I spent half the day crafting four thank you letters trying to make each of them look different and finding things I talked about with each person to discuss and find a way to remind them about my skills and education. (I had talked to four different people at the company. each for 45 minutes.)
thank you letters are optional.
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