Job Seekers: Stop Following This New Trend If You Want To Land A Job

Fewer and fewer job seekers are sending handwritten thank you cards post-interview. This is not a trend you want to follow if you’re in search of a job.

Every time you interview, whether it’s over-the-phone, via Skype or in-person, you need to send a handwritten (yes, handwritten) thank you card via snail mail.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re interviewing to be a barista at Starbucks or for the C-Suite at a Fortune 500 Company, sending a handwritten thank you card wins over hiring managers.

But, I already send a thank you email after my interview, isn’t that enough? No! Thank you cards compliment thank you emails, not supplement them.

Here are three reasons you need to send a post-interview thank you card:

1. Thank you cards reinforce your interview awesomeness

Use the thank you card to reinforce the skills, knowledge, experience and passion you shared during your interview. Remind the hiring manager why they need to hire you and not some other applicant. In other words, highlight what makes you perfect for the company and the position.

Your thank you card only needs to be a couple of sentences long and may include something along the lines of, “After meeting today, I further believe my passion for A, B and C, coupled with my experience with X, Y and Z, makes me a great fit for Company Name.”

Forgot to mention something in your interview? You can also wrap it into your thank you card!

2. Thank you cards put you back in the hiring manager’s mind

Several days will lapse between your interview and when the hiring manager receives your thank you card, putting you back in the hiring manager’s mind and ensuring they don’t forget about you.

My own dad landed his most recent job as a result of this approach. A major hardware store opened up in our hometown and he applied, but received a rejection letter.

The next day the hiring manager got my dad’s handwritten thank you card in the mail. He was beyond impressed with my dad. He was the only applicant out of hundreds to send a thank you card. Now THAT is standing out! As a result, the hiring manager offered my dad the job he had been rejected for the day prior.

3. Thank you cards prove your exceptional follow-through skills

You can say you have great communication and follow-through skills during your interview, but a handwritten thank you card proves that you actually have these skills. In other words, you’re backing up any claims you made during the interview.

This is especially important if applying for sales or another customer-facing job. The thank you card is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate your awesome customer service skills.

Hiring managers remember impeccable follow through. Five years after applying for a job, I was stopped by someone I didn’t recognize, “Hey! You’re the thank you card guy!” After a few seconds of chatting, I realize I was part of a panel interview with this woman.

Despite meeting her more than five years earlier, she still remembered me because of the thank you card I sent her. In her 15-year career, she had never been sent a thank you card. I was in her mind for life thanks to a simple thank you card.

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