Post Interview

[Enda Goodwin]

Beginning with the thank you for your first job interview and ending with the thank you for your retirement party, your career can benefit enormously from simple notes of gratitude written along the way. Frequent, well-written thank you notes, whether on paper or email, can foster professional success in unimaginable ways, and they are especially important after a job interview.

Within 48 hours of the interview, send a thank you email to the interviewer. The “4 R's” can help you organize your thoughts to write your letter easily and quickly:

• Remember. As most people don’t take the time to send thank you notes, your note will stand out and help the interviewer to remember you positively.
• Reinforce. In a sentence or two, re-state the skills, accomplishments, and experience that make you right for the job.
• Recoup. If there is something you wish you had made clearer, or forgot to say in the interview, you can add it to your note.
• Remind. In the closing paragraph, you can tactfully remind the interviewer of a promise or an agreement. For instance, “Thank you for your interest and encouragement. I look forward to hearing from you by next Wednesday to learn the date of my next interview.”

Send thank you emails to everyone you interviewed with. Don’t send copies – make sure you say something a little different to each person. It's not necessary to send individual notes to each of the people in a panel interview. However, you should know through your closure questions which individual you need to follow up with. Send a note to that person, and to the decision maker, if they are different people. Review these Thank You Note Samples to get inspired.

Email thank you notes are acceptable, especially if the interviewer suggests email communication. Be sure to indicate in the subject line that it is a thank you. Then keep the body of the email brief and to the point.

When in doubt with what type of note to send, you can always send a handwritten thank you note. This will differentiate you from the other candidates.

Interview post-analysis

The post-analysis is important in assessing your need for further practice or training. Be honest with yourself. It is possible to invest months in interview preparation and sacrifice the job in the interview. Learn from each experience and use your cumulative learning to continuously improve your interviewing skills.

Use the following questions as a post-analysis checklist:

• What went well? Why?
• What did not go well? Why?
• What would I do differently if I were to repeat the interview?
• What are my key learnings?
• What interview skills must I further develop?