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Luckily, thank you letters are not that difficult to create.  The document's name basically describes the main content of the letter, which is simply thanking an interviewer for his/her time.  A good rule to follow when creating a thank you letter is stating the purpose of the letter in the very first sentence.  For example, way in the past, when I was actively interviewing for jobs, I would always lead my own letters off with some variation of the following sentence.

Now, how easy is that?  Wouldn't it be great to just tack this sort of sentence at the beginning of your letters and be through with this business of creating thank you letters?  Well, naturally you aren't going to get off the hook that easily, but I will share a useful building trick that always seemed to work well for me before I started working with a busy recruitment team in Chicago. 

I use to include tidbits mentioned during my job interviews.  For example, if I mentioned in the interview that I enjoyed hanging out at Wrigley Field during the summers and watching the Cubs play or that I enjoyed teaching art at the local Boys & Girls Club during my winter breaks, then I might include a small reference to either in my thank you letter.  That way, if the interviewer has forgotten me during the course of his extremely hectic week of interviewing possibly 20 plus candidates, then hopefully this brief reference to the Cubs or teaching art again will help to jar his memory of me.

Besides mentioning memorable items from your job interview, you could also use your thank you letter to express the following information:  1) restate your interest in working for an employer, 2) to recap your skills/capabilities or 3) to remind the interviewer of something important discussed during the meeting.  Whatever information you do decide to go with in your letter, please make sure to keep it short.  Ideally, thank you letters should not exceed 4 paragraphs.

To give you a better picture of how a thank you letter could be assembled, I went ahead and strung a sample letter just below.    

(Sample Thank You Letter)

Dear Mr. Hanson:

Thank you for making time to meet with me on Wednesday, September 26, 2001.  I enjoyed our conversation and especially appreciated your candor in explaining the rigorous duties required of the position as well as your thoroughness in explaining the traits you believe are essential to someday becoming a successful account manager at the company.

As a result of our discussion, I'm more concerted in my beliefs that I can help Bilford Belcherman continue to grow substantially and also aid you in increasing your department's productivity.  I only hope that you will present me with the opportunity to prove all this to you.

Once again, I enjoyed the meeting and if there is any other information I can provide you with to aid you in reaching your decision sooner, please feel free to call me at the number noted above.

Sincerely,

Seneca Langford

Thank You Letters  (More Examples)

To make sure you're doubly clear on how to create a thank you letter, I've provided links to additional examples just below.  Feel free to modify the letters to fit your personal needs or if you're feeling really confident about what you've just learned, go ahead and craft a letter completely from scratch yourself.

Thank You Letter 1,  Thank You Letter 2,  Thank You Letter 3

Who All Should Receive Thank You Letter?

Now, let's move onto the list of people that should receive your thank you letter.  If you'd seriously like to make sure that the key people involved in pulling your interview(s) together are properly thanked, then you should plan on also sending a thank you letter to the person that coordinated your meetings.  At most large companies this person is usually the H.R. assistant or recruitment coordinator.  While at smaller companies this person might simply be the hiring person's secretary.  Nonetheless, most candidates overlook creating thank you letters for the behind-the-scenes interview coordinator.  Not only will sending a letter to this person help to highlight your professionalism, but it could also help earn you favorable points at the very end, especially if the interviewer is struggling with his or her decision of you. 

Contact with Interviewer's Assistant

Occasionally, interviewers will ask their close often highly regarded assistants what they thought of a candidate they might’ve had some small contact with.  For the purpose of this illustration, let's just assume that the candidate in this case is you.  This nominal contact with you could end up occurring over the phone when the interviewer's assistant first calls to arrange the meeting with you.  It could also take place in person, on the day of the actual interview when she comes out to greet you in the lobby or perhaps when she escorts you back to her boss' office.  It could also take place after the interview when she escorts you to the main door and exchanges a few parting words with you. 

In any case, the small contact you may end up having with the interviewer's assistant should not be overlooked.  She could definitely have some small input in whether you get the job or not, especially if the interviewer thinks highly of her or values her opinion excessively.  Therefore, to help increase your odds of securing the job always send the person that arranged your interview a thank you letter as well.  The letter doesn't have to be anything elaborate.  It could be something very simple, something perhaps along the lines of the example assistant's thank you letter.

If you're not sure who arranged your interview(s), simply call up the company and ask who did.  Tell them you're in the process of writing a thank you letter and you want to make sure that the interviewer(s) you met with even down to the person who arranged your actual interview(s) are properly thanked.  You'll discover right away that most human resources departments are more than willing to provide you with this information.

Thank You Cards

While sending a thank you letter is definitely the most practical way to follow up with interviewers, there's still another handy tool available to you and that's a thank you card.  Cards are just as appropriate for sending to interviewers as thank you letters.  Plus, many experienced jobseekers believe the card's contents (e.g. as lax grammar, a forgotten period or missing comma) won't be judged as critically as perhaps a small mistake found within a formal thank you letter might be viewed.  But, probably the biggest factor in jobseekers turning readily to thank you cards is the fact that not much in the way of content is usually required inside the card.  Jobseekers can safely write a couple of lines like the following and they're finished:

When To Send Thank You Letters?

Some hiring experts recommend sending thank you letters out within one week of the interview, others say you have up to two good weeks.  I, on the other hand, always encourage friends and other jobseekers to send their letters out immediately after the interview, preferably 1 to 3 days of the interview, and if time is really a major concern of yours go ahead and send your thank you letter via email or fax.  Today, jobseekers are readily relying on electronic mail to help get their thank you letters in the hands of recent interviewers faster.

Proofread Letter

If you opt to go with a thank you letter, don’t forget to check for typos before mailing it.  While most computers already have software installed on them to help check for obvious typos, they unfortunately don't always catch instances where inappropriate word choices may be the problem instead of a mere misspelling (e.g. the writer wrongfully chooses their over there).  As a good safety measure, always have a friend or family member look over your letter for you before mailing it. 

Invest In a Daily Planner

To help you with the important task of promptly mailing thank you letters, please consider investing in a daily planner, if you haven't already.  Besides jotting down your interview dates in the planner, you can also use it to help remind you when to send off post-interview correspondence.  Naturally, you could use a simple Mead notebook for this purpose too, but if you're anything like I was when I was interviewing years ago, you'll probably refer to your planner a lot and the chances of you remembering to perform a particular task will be easier if you write it down in something you flip through often.  

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This article is © 2003-2005 by Tracy Miller and may not be reposted without written permission from the author and may not be reprinted for profit.