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Topic: E Mailing vs. Mailing Thank you after interview
| Author | Message |
| Ahppy1 | Posted – 7/17/2007 12:22:26 PM | show profile Do you e mail or regular mail thank you's after an interview? I had and interiew yesturday and when i came home i sat down to write out a rough draft before sending them out. I did e-mail it last night and also mailed it. I always thought e mailing seemed impersonal, guess im so used to writing them because its a little more personal, but realize its instant- they won't forget about me. I also wrote then out and mailed them, believing by the end of the week when and if they make a decision there i am again fresh in their minds. |
| Ima Putz | Posted – 7/17/2007 12:35:56 PM | show profile This might be excessive, but I always write a hand-written letter and send it directly after the interview so that it gets to the interviewer the very next morning (which often means sending it priority mail). |
| Ahppy1 | Posted – 7/17/2007 12:40:54 PM | show profile the company is pretty much the next town or two over..cant imagine that it wouldnt be there by tomorrow |
| foodlit | Posted – 7/17/2007 1:35:14 PM | show profile Ahppy, I think that was smart and I've told people to do the same. Send an email that is short and sweet and instant....followed by a nice handwritten personalized thank you that they get a day or two later....an extra impression that will reinforce good thoughts hopefully! Good luck, Pam |
| Ahppy1 | Posted – 7/17/2007 2:36:02 PM | show profile I always rather just snail mail it because it is more personal. but of course glad and will do both for the extra effort. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 7/17/2007 4:01:06 PM | show profile do both. NO biggie. in the written one, mention something personal discussed in the interview. Make the email brief and to the point. |
| ManhattanMatt | Posted – 7/17/2007 8:01:39 PM | show profile Snail mail ... Isn't as slow as you might think. I routinely send letters from Manhattan to Pittsburgh and Atlanta, and in both cities the recipients often get the letter the NEXT DAY! |
| beenthere | Posted – 7/17/2007 8:43:58 PM | show profile E-mail. Any written correspondence is bound to get buried on an editor's desk. But if she wants to get ahold of you, she can search through her e-mail and all of your contact info is right there. All she has to do is hit REPLY. I think doing both smacks of desperation. I had a contact?he was an older gentleman?who would e-mail, snail mail and fax me the same documentation to make sure I received it. Drove me f-n crazy. I had to read each piece to make sure I wasn't tossing an original document. It made more work for me and cluttered my desk. Be practical. |
| WordyBird | Posted – 7/17/2007 11:30:06 PM | show profile With one exception in which the person clearly used e-mail as her primary form of correspondence, I've always sent hand-written notes on notecards that match my resume paper. (Which means I leave a fresh, watermarked copy of my resume with them when I come to interview. Fossil here: I still don't like the whole e-mail thing for sending resumes. Attach, don't attach...I attach AND include as text in the body of the e-mail but still, you never know what's going to come out of their printer. They could be having a bad font day even for Arial.) |
| ManhattanMatt | Posted – 7/17/2007 11:47:04 PM | show profile I prefer REAL mail ... On any given day, my work e-mail box gets upwards of 200 emails, 190 of which have nothing to do with me or my show. My M.O. is to "bulk delete" everything from people whose names I don't recognize. If your thank-you note (or your resume) happens to be in there, you've just blown your chance to get your message across to me. But I assure you ... I handle and open EVERY piece of "snail mail" in my mail box. Also, I'm of the opinion that since sending an email thank-you note is virtually effortless, that's the ultimate message I get from the sender -- that they couldn't be bothered with WRITING me a thank you note, sealing it, stamping it, and dropping it into a mailbox. |
| noname1234 | Posted – 7/17/2007 11:59:30 PM | show profile Interesting -- I have the opposite feeling from Matt -- I much prefer getting email because it's easier for me to organize -- i have all my different folders set up -- and easier for me to read -- no weird handwriting to decipher. I don't like getting snail mail because it's just one more clutter-creating piece of paper that i then have to deal with; it's a waste of resources too, imo. To each their own on this -- perhaps doing both email and snail mail is the way to cover your bases. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 7/18/2007 12:03:34 AM | show profile I think an email is entirely inappropriate for a Thank you of that nature. I send the email just in case for some reason they don't get the mail or open it right away--to cover my bases right off the bat. But like a birthday card--I prefer Thank You notes be notes. |
| Rebecca_mb | Posted – 7/19/2007 3:30:03 PM | show profile | email poster More on this in mbToolbox Hey guys, Our own Nancy Hwang's got a pretty strong endorsement of the hand-written thank you in the 'Toolbox. Check it out: http://www.mediabistro.com/mbtoolbox/careers/how_far_will_your_thank_you_go_62684.htm Thanks for posting! ------ ** Rebecca L. Fox Managing editor, service and features mediabistro.com |
| choc_ap | Posted – 7/19/2007 4:21:52 PM | show profile Do both I usually send out a short email thank you when I get home from the interview and then send a nice handwritten note. |
| cornfrost | Posted – 7/19/2007 5:35:13 PM | show profile | email poster Everyone is way overthinking this topic. Does anyone have actual evidence that sending any kind of thank-you note after an interview has actually made a difference in their getting the job? |
| Ahppy1 | Posted – 7/19/2007 5:56:03 PM | show profile i always wonder how much of an impact the thank you notes have...but always did anyway. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 7/19/2007 6:12:26 PM | show profile I once interviewed with a daily paper about a job covering the teen beat. I went hone, and constructed my own thank you card: The front page of the XY Times with all the headlines rewritten in teenspeak. "Gas prices back up, Ohmigod!!!!" Latest Poll on Bush: La-La-LO-ser!" "Back To Prison...er, School...Fashion". I was offered the job. Twice. The editor said she put the note on her board for everyone to see. Including the exec ed. |
| MedScribe | Posted – 7/19/2007 6:58:12 PM | show profile I think in the case of Granite Girl, she got the job because she came up with a great idea -- it wasn't the thank you per se. I think "thank you/nice to meet you" e-mails are fine, but they do need to be accompanied by ideas and evidence that you know the company and really get the publication and the readers. A Priority Mail handwritten letter is a bit too much in my opinion. It also makes sense to fire off a "nice to meet you, sorry I didn't get the position" e-mail or letter AFTER you've gotten rejected for a position. (That is, of course, if they bother to let you know you didn't get it!) |
| seeattleme | Posted – 7/19/2007 7:14:54 PM | show profile right but it was the extra inch--professed in the thank you note. So what is your point? Don't send a thank-you note? Why are people on this board so contrarian??? OBVIOUSLY i didn't get the job because i sent a thank you note. That's standard procedure. MY point was in response to the point made that no one pays attention to thank you notes, anyway,. that this is a big deal over nothing. I sure hope I'm always up against people who don't think thank you notes matter for jobs. |
| noname1234 | Posted – 7/19/2007 7:34:39 PM | show profile I think MedScribe was just pointing out that the content of your thank-you note matters too -- just saying "thanks for the interview!" is fine but it may not get you any advantage; if you also use the note to really show why you're great for the job, as granitegirl did in a creative way, that's where you can really potentially benefit yourself. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 7/19/2007 10:04:30 PM | show profile it's kind of obvious to me that when applying for a job it makes sense to use every opportunity available to go above and beyond and set yourself apart. That kind of goes without saying. I can tell you that not sending a thank you note at all (because you think they are silly and no one reads them) can NOT get you a job. You may still get it, but you're taking your chances at that point. |
| MedScribe | Posted – 7/19/2007 10:46:29 PM | show profile Yeah, that's exactly what I meant noname. Thanks. Send thank you note. Sure, why not. But it won't compensate for other deficits, if you have them. So don't sweat it. |
| beenthere | Posted – 7/20/2007 6:38:51 PM | show profile In my office, every piece of mail has to be opened, photo copied and logged in by admin staff. It's office policy. Edit space is also at a premium and old resumes/cover letters get tossed (aside from the fact that we get a zillion for most positions). So a hard copy letter would just get tossed in the trash. An e-mail?this is specific to my office?would be a way to keep your name in the loop. My sister said her old boss wouldn't accept hard copy resumes because he wanted to be sure people knew how to use computers. If anything was sent by snail mail it went directly in the trash. I find it a little weird as most places now force electronic application/submissions that job candidates consider sending additional correspondence via snail mail. It's contradictory. But to each his own. |
| bjoconnorfla | Posted – 7/20/2007 8:46:02 PM | show profile Hand-written. Now that editors are deluged with email crap, it not only won't get lost but will stand out. Follow up later via emails during the many, many months when you're wondering why they haven't called. You can send a link to something good that you've written, a story that touches on some point that came up in the interview, or even just a "touching base" emai. Not more than once every two weeks. |
| upcoaster | Posted – 7/21/2007 11:27:25 AM | show profile Yes, longhand ...with a fountain pen and on a fine onionskin. And use 19th-century prose. Seal with wax. Maybe the family crest. Seriously, when editors see handwritten these days they figure it's either a prisoner or an aged subscriber writing to ask why the publication's type keeps getting smaller. |
