Why do people give out their business cards after interviews? (employers, jobs)

[Dub D]

I think handing out business cards is an easy to end an interview on a upbeat point without that awkwardness. I don't think much about it. I'm a thank you email type of person but I think its only helpful when they are hiring for more than one opening. If its just one opening, your email won't mean anything.

[FBJ]

Originally Posted by hnsq

Given how easy it is to sue employers today, many employers are instructed by legal departments not to give feedback, as any feedback is an open door to litigation. Not sending a thank you letter is somewhat rude. You are working for them, not the other way around.

How many times have you reached out to the people who gave you a business card for lunch/coffee/etc. a few months later? Having a business card means you can call that person for career advice at some point in the future. How often do you go through your rolodex and call people who have given you cards in the past?



I would seriously reconsider hiring someone who didn't send any sort of thank you. I wouldn't consider them optional at all.

They must be optional if I got a 2nd interview invite without sending a thank you letter

[hnsq]

Originally Posted by WestPhillyDude75

They must be optional if I got a 2nd interview invite without sending a thank you letter

Your one experience does not constitute a nationwide rule. There is absolutely no possibility of a downside to a well-thought out well-written thank you note, whereas there is always a chance of a downside to not sending one.

[L210]

My personal rule is to no longer send thank you letters for government jobs. Every time I sent one, I would get a response that indicated he or she didn't quite understand the point of a thank you letter and thought it was bizarre. I landed a government job without sending a thank you letter, but I'll probably keep sending them to private employers.

[Kibbiekat]

Obviously thank you notes are optional. There is no law requiring them. TY notes aside, don't you sometimes just want to know who you've been talking to and what their job title is?

The OP is just bitter and has a bad attitude. It isn't going to help him. His ally here was unemployed for how long? a couple years? Not the first person I'd take interview or thank you note advice from.

[Kibbiekat]

Originally Posted by L210

My personal rule is to no longer send thank you letters for government jobs. Every time I sent one, I would get a response that indicated he or she didn't quite understand the point of a thank you letter and thought it was bizarre. I landed a government job without sending a thank you letter, but I'll probably keep sending them to private employers.

Odd. I was recently on a panel for a govt job and got a couple thank you notes, and an e-mail. The point was obvious.

I sent one for the job I have now, and had to call the receptionist and ask for the names of who had interviewed me, since they didn't hand me their cards.

[UnemployedRage]

Originally Posted by Kibbiekat

Obviously thank you notes are optional. There is no law requiring them. TY notes aside, don't you sometimes just want to know who you've been talking to and what their job title is?

The OP is just bitter and has a bad attitude. It isn't going to help him. His ally here was unemployed for how long? a couple years? Not the first person I'd take interview or thank you note advice from.

I am neither sad nor bitter. I had the misfortune of graduating with the "wrong" business degree(finance) in 2011. Back then the economy was worse and no amount of interview skill was going to overcome the fact that I had no relevant experience (though plenty of work experience just not relevant one) to go for financial analyst jobs and wrong degree to qualify for accounting jobs(employers wanted accounting only degrees). As numerous investigations into linkedin confirmed later, I was frequently beat out by people with more experience. At my school the number of people with finance degree is huge, the number of people with accounting degree is substantially less and the number of people with both the finance degree and accounting degree is even less than that. So I went back to school and I am almost finished with my accounting degree (4.0 in the major) and now I am in the catbird seat. All kinds of doors are starting to open. I am on the CPA track, I recently took a graduate tax course necessary to sit for the CPA exam where I beat the hell out of people who worked/will work at PwC(master's students). I made it to the 2nd round of interviews in one position recently and getting a lot more enthusiasm from employers.

So contrary to what some HR drones here believe, sometimes the problem is not in you, but the piece of paper you hold.

[wargamer6]

Judging by your username, it's you.

[groar]

regarding thank you notes, i think people should think of them as more follow-up notes than thank you's. it's not just thanking the person for interviewing you, it's an opportunity to show that you processed the information you learned in the interview and that you are still interested. and maybe you can get in some relevant thing that you didn't get to mention in person, ask a question, or follow up on something that came up. i also send them via e-mail because postal mail won't always get there fast enough. and i never expect a reply.

i don't think a good thank you/follow-up note would totally turn your chances around with an employer, but if it's close between you and someone else, it might be a deciding factor. that's only if you include some substance in there, though. this thread has already demonstrated that some employers don't give a crap about them and some do.

i have seen a thank you note ruin someone's chances but the stuff she said in there was straight up nuts (and she wasn't such a great candidate to begin with). she basically said she felt like god wanted her to have this job. ok. bad idea.

so is it mandatory? of course not. but i don't think it can hurt if you have any judgment at all about what you should and shouldn't say.

[Tober138]

Originally Posted by hnsq

There is absolutely no possibility of a downside to a well-thought out well-written thank you note, whereas there is always a chance of a downside to not sending one.

I would agree with the first part of this, but not with the second. The post-interview thank you / follow-up note has become somewhat of a minor formality for whatever reasons. While there is no downside to sending one, there really is little downside to not sending one. In most business settings (at least in the white collar world) such a note is not going to factor at all into a final decision of whether or not to hire a person for a given position, although it is an accepted part of the process.

I am not sure what really needs to be, "well thought out" about such a letter. A very brief (2-3 sentence) e-mail that says something along the lines of, thank you for your time, let me know what the next steps in the process are, if you have any further questions please feel free to contact me, is sufficient.

If one did not sell themselves well enough in the interview, the substance of such a letter is not going to change that (I am sure that there are anecdotal cases to the contrary, but I think that is a valid generalization).