Thank-You Notes: Email or Hand-Written?

As a career coach and mentor I get asked a ton of questions. Everything from interviewing to career transition to resume-writing to what to wear to an interview.

One question that seems to pop up frequently has to do with writing thank-you notes after an interview. Should they be electronic (email) or hand-written?

In my opinion, it’s both.

Hand-written thank-you notes should be written and mailed the same day as the interview. First one goes to the hiring manager, then one for each of the people we have met, including the HR manager.

I prefer to drive to the post office that evening and drop them in the box so they are in process as early as possible. Putting them out for the morning mail just delays them another day; why wait?

Even if it’s late you can drive by the Post Office’s outdoor drop box in your PJ’s; I know because I’ve done this.

Email thank-you notes should also be sent the same day as the interview. These can be short; remember the hiring manager doesn’t need an email novel.

Some may disagree with the need for the hand-written thank you note. Yet remains a special gesture. When my colleagues and I receive one from a candidate, we mentally put an asterisk by this person’s name.

Not to mention the fact that an email may languish in a junk mail folder, or simply be passed up due to the hundreds of other emails in the in-box. By sending both a hand-written and an email version, you have covered your bases.

Yet don’t be fooled into thinking just any words on a note card will do. It has to be a well-thought-out thank-you note, something with character.

The thank-you is part of the personal branding, still part of the interview process. It’s one more way to show that not only do you want the job but that you are the right candidate for it.

Not everyone gets a “tingly” feeling when they receive a hand-written thank-you note, but in this day of email and texts and other social media, I do.

In fact, I just received one the other day from students that I met at Texas A&M. They all wrote notes on a card, thanking me for coming to speak with them.  They probably thought nothing of it. Many probably thought it was silly; that the professor made them do it.

Au contraire.

Little do they know that I keep every one of these cards; every thank you note they send from every time I visit with them. I have a file that is getting thicker all the time.

While employers may not keep a file of such things, they do remember who sends a hand-written note, who sends a thank-you email and who never follows up at all.

The question is: How do you want to be remembered during the interview process? Or do you want to be remembered at all?

Take time to send a hand-written note as well as the thank-you email. It’s worth the effort.