Sample Thank You Notes for Job Interviews

By Peggy McKee

See all Articles by Peggy McKeeSee Peggy McKee's Expert PageGet Updates on Interviewing SkillsGet Updates on Peggy McKee

If the only thing your job interview thank you note says is "Thanks for the interview. I'm looking forward to working with you!", you have already stood out from the crowd, but you have still wasted a prime opportunity to boost your chance to get the job by nudging that hiring manager farther along toward making you the offer.

How do you do that? By writing a thank you note that looks like this:

Dear Mr. Manager,

Sincerely,
Your name

This is a rough example of what your email should look like, but you get the idea. You're taking this additional opportunity to sell yourself for the job and you're taking active steps to keep the conversation going. It's not just "thanks, I hope to hear from you". That doesn't get you to the next step, but this does.

A few more job interview thank you note tips:

• Send your thank you as an email within 24 hours of your meeting.
• Elaborate on what you talked about in the interview, specifically addressing how your skills fit their requirements and in some areas, exceed them.
• Show that you thought about the conversation and are planning for your successful first steps in this new job.If the interview didn't go so well, you can use this opportunity for damage control. Address misconceptions, things you forgot, etc.
• Send a personalized note to everyone you spoke with about this job...whether it's the 3 people on the panel, or the 5 people you spoke with individually.
• If you can't find an address, Google it: Search the email address structure of the company. Type in a * and then an @ plus whatever the name of the company is, like this: "*@thecompanyname.com". That should show you how email addresses at that company are structured, so you can make some safe assumptions for this one.

It's worth your time to get your job interview follow up done right.