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The interview thank you letter is a piece of
correspondence that will definitely help a good
candidate win a position. Think of the interview
thank you letter as an extension of the
interview itself and as a way of emphasizing any
positive points that you may have made about
yourself and your willingness to work for the
company you’ve interviewed with.
Your interview thank you letter should be
sincere, and informative but it should also be
short. Show that you respect the time of the
decision maker you are sending the interview
thank you letter to. Keep your interview thank
you letter down to two or three paragraphs, get
straight to the point and keep it businesslike
and you’ll have a winner, and may be pleasantly
surprised with a good job offer.
Your interview thank you letter should of
course start with the date, name of the
addressee, his or her address, and a salutation,
like “Dear sir” or “Dear Mr. Jones.” Then get
right to the point and thank the decision maker
for spending time with you. Remind the decision
maker of two or three key points you discussed
in the interview or that you may emphasize on
your resume. You may do that in a paragraph
form, but many people prefer a bullet point
interview thank you letter since it allows you
to use fewer words and make your points quicker,
while graphically using white space to draw the
eye of the reader to the parts of the letter you
want to be sure they are to read.
The interview thank you letter should always
include a final paragraph that points out to the
decision maker that you are available by phone,
in person or by email if they have further
questions. This shows that you are going out of
your way to provide the decision maker with the
information needed to make a sound decision,
which indicates that you would be a great
employee to have.
When typing the interview thank you letter,
use a computer and word processing software. In
the old days typewriters were fine, but these
days computers are expected. Format the
interview thank you letter in a simple block
fashion with double spacing between paragraphs.
Indentations used to be standard but in the past
few years double spacing between paragraphs has
become more acceptable and expected. Choose an
easy to read font. Times Roman 12 point is a
good choice. If you find 12 point too large,
then 11 point is fine, but 10 point is too small
and should be avoided. If you don’t care for
Times Roman, then Bookman or 20th Century
Schoolbook are also good choices. These are
serif fonts, which means they have little hooks
on them. Serif fonts are considered friendlier
and more personal than san serif fonts, which
don’t have the little hooks. Newspapers and
magazines usually use serif fonts for copy
because they are easy on the eyes.
Print your interview thank you letter on good
quality paper using a high quality printer, and
drop it in the mail as soon as possible after
the interview and you’ll make a great
impression. |
