What is the purpose of writing a thank you letter?

Purpose

The purpose of a thank you letter is simply to thank the interviewer for taking the time to speak

with you. Ideally, a thank you letter should be sent within 24 hours of your interview, but up to

one week after the interview is still an acceptable time period. In addition to demonstrating good

manners, thank you letters also provide an Excellent opportunity to reassert your interest in that

employer; provide additional information that was not mentioned during the interview; provide

material (e.g., transcripts, writing sample) requested during your interview; re-address a question

that you did not answer to your satisfaction; mention a new development in an area you

discussed with the interviewer; update your resume with any pertinent information; and, if the

interview was for information, to let the person know how valuable his or her advice was and

how you plan to use it.

If you met with several different people, it is preferable that you send a thank you letter to each

person. Do not send the same exact thank you to each person. Instead, vary each thank you

letter for each person. If you met with a large group of people, you may send one thank you to

one of them (the senior person, hiring partner, or primary contact) and ask that individual to

extend your appreciation to the other interviewers (mention each person by name).

You do not need to write a thank you letter after an on-campus first interview, and recruiting

coordinators specifically ask that you do not do so. On-campus recruiters see hundreds of

students and do not wish to be bombarded with thank-yous. More importantly, they are unlikely

to have a positive effect, since the recruiter will have made selection decisions by the end of the

day, before they leave our office, if not sooner ( immediately after each student's interview.)

Many students still prefer to send a thank-you after on-campus first interviews, and if you are

going to do so we recommend that you send a nicely formatted and formally Worded e-mail. That

way, the interviewer might see your message during the day if they check their e-mails, and

recruiters generally don't mind such e-mails.

For off-campus interviews, including subsequent interviews with employers who recruit oncampus, either initial interviews or follow-up second interviews, you should write thank-you

letters.