How to Write a Job Interview Thank You Email (With Template)

How to Write a Job Interview Thank You Email (With Template) was originally published on Forage.

Image of a computer key with a job interview thank you note email

After you’ve finished your job interview, you might think you can finally relax. However, your work isn’t over quite yet. You’ve got one more task to complete: the job interview thank you email.

Sending a job interview thank you email can be the deciding factor that helps you land the job, but this isn’t something you can dash off quickly. You need to be thoughtful in what you include in your email.

This guide will explain the essential elements of a job interview thank you email and includes an example, so you can see it in action. You’ll learn:

Why You Should Send a Job Interview Thank You Email

Sending a job interview thank you email might seem a little old-fashioned or even over the top. But it’s an additional opportunity for you to stand out from the other candidates and make a positive impression on the hiring manager.

For starters, you can use the thank you note to remind the interviewer about your skills and how you would use them in the role. And as career coach Denise Ingledue-Lopez, MA, PRC points out, the thank you note can play a pivotal role in how the hiring manager perceives you. “A thank you note sent after the interview will go a long way in conveying your interest and enthusiasm for the position. It shows professional courtesy by appreciating the interviewer’s time, allows you to offer information that can make you a stronger candidate, and helps you stand out by demonstrating your attention to detail and follow through.”

If nothing more, most hiring managers expect a thank you note, even if they never read it. So it’s important not to skip this crucial “last step” of your interview.

Keep in mind that a job interview thank you note is different from other emails you might send during your job search. For example, if you’re following up after your interview, you might specifically inquire about the status of your candidacy. But a thank you note after a job interview generally expresses your gratitude for the interview and your enthusiasm for the position.

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How to Write a Thank You Note Email After a Job Interview

It’s important to note that every person who interviews you should get a personalized thank you note. Even if you meet with multiple interviewers in one day, it’s vital to send each of them a thank you email.

Here are the essential elements of a job interview thank you email.

Timing Matters 

Send your thank you email within 24 to 48 hours of your interview. While you may have interview notes to help fill in the gaps, the sooner you write the thank you note, the more likely you’ll remember the details.

If your interview was on a Friday, you could compose the thank you note over the weekend, then send it on Monday morning to help ensure it doesn’t get buried in an onslaught of weekend emails.

A Clear Subject Line

While “Thank You” is an acceptable subject line, it’s generic and could get lost in an inbox. Include your name as part of the subject line to help the interviewer quickly locate your thank you note if they have to search their email.

The subject line could be:

Thank You — Your Name

Gratitude 

Even though your gratitude is implied in a thank you note, it’s crucial to explain what you are grateful for. Specifically, you want to recognize the time the interviewer spent with you and the effort they made preparing for your interview.

This can be simple and brief

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me…

What You Discussed

As you craft your thank you email, mention something specific discussed during your interview. Remember that the interviewer may have met with several people that day, so bringing up a detail about your meeting can help them remember you in particular. 

For example, instead of saying, “Thank you for telling me about the role,” include something more detailed:

“Thank you for explaining the ins and outs of the role. I’m really excited by the prospect of testing and iterating your new content initiatives to see which one drives new traffic to your blog.”

The specific detail you include doesn’t have to be work-centric, though. If it turns out you both share a love of B-movies or you’re fans of the same sports team, you can include this detail instead of or in addition to something about the job.

Why They Should Hire You

Though job interview thank you notes are brief, you can still use them to reiterate why the company should hire you. In one or two sentences, you can bring up your most relevant skill and how you’ll use it to benefit the company.

“I’m really looking forward to bringing my research skills to the role to help the company identify and connect with new clients.”

Your Interest in the Role

While you convey your interest in the position during the interview, the thank you note is, again, an additional opportunity to express that feeling. There are two ways to do this.

First, you can plainly state it:

I want to reiterate my interest in the role.

Second, you can use words that convey your interest, like excited, passionate, and enthusiastic:

I’m excited about the prospect of joining the team and contributing my skills to a growing company.

or

I’m enthusiastic about joining a passionate, mission-oriented company.

Clarifying and Adding On

The job interview thank you email is also the perfect opportunity to clarify anything you think needs it and to add in anything you may have forgotten to mention.

For example, if you’re applying for a sales role and talked about your achievements, you can use the thank you note to add an additional achievement you didn’t mention during the interview to further illustrate your abilities.

“I enjoyed discussing my sales total for the last year and the techniques I used to accomplish that goal. One thing I didn’t mention is that I created a new sales deck that explained the value proposition of the product, and this led to a 42% increase in new business.”

Call to Action

End your thank you note with a call to action. This invites the reader to do something. Even if they don’t do “the thing,” a call to action is a strong way to close your thank you note. 

While you may think the call to action should be “hire me,”  what you’re really doing is letting the interviewer know that if they need anything from you, you’re happy to provide it. 

I look forward to hearing from you about the next steps, and if you need anything from me, please let me know.

Job Interview Thank You Email Template

Here’s what a job interview thank you note looks like when you combine all of these elements:

Dear [Interviewer’s First Name]

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me [date] about the [job title] role at [name of company]. I enjoyed discussing [one unique element of your interview that you talked about]. After meeting with you, I’m even more excited about bringing my [name a skill] to the role, to [what would you help the company do with that skill] and am very interested in the role. [Add any additional information here if you need to.]

If you have any questions for me, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at [your email address or phone number].

Thanks again!

[Your name]

What if You Don’t Have an Email Address for Your Interviewer?

You may meet with multiple interviewers, either all at once or separately. Furthermore, you may only have the email address of one of those people, or possibly even someone in HR who coordinates everything but doesn’t interview you.

While you should ask for people’s email addresses at the end of the interview, sometimes that just doesn’t happen. So, how can you send a job interview thank you email when you don’t have your interviewer’s email address?

If you have a single point of contact at the company, ask if they can give you the email addresses you’re missing. If that’s not an option, try to back-engineer the address. Many companies have a standard way of formatting email addresses, so you might be able to figure it out, especially if you already have one to work from.

Saying Thanks

Sending a job interview thank you email is the crucial final step of the application process. Make sure yours expresses your gratitude for the interviewer’s time and your deep interest in the role to help you stand out to the hiring manager.

Image credit: Canva

The post How to Write a Job Interview Thank You Email (With Template) appeared first on Forage.