Long Live the Thank You

I’ve written (talked) a lot about “thank-you’s” lately…guess I just can’t shake this thank-you-thing from my mind.

Our company has an internal position open that’s getting a lot of my attention these days. In fact, I’ve had five face-to-face interviews since last Thursday. Since we spend a lot of time interviewing on behalf of other organizations, it’s been a lot of fun to pursue these candidates knowing one of them will soon be on our team.

But here’s what’s puzzling me about the candidates. For the most part, all five have engaged well in the interview process. Two candidates have successfully raised the bar for the others, based on their passionate, on-target responses to our questions. One candidate sent a thank-you card as a follow-up to the interview.

One.

Honestly, it’s intriguing. And really, I’m just curious…since when did “the experts” stop telling candidates to send thank you notes? Sure, I say that jokingly, because, even though I’ve only been at this for 12 years, it’s pretty much been like that since I joined the recruiting ranks. The Career Coaches instruct the job-seekers to follow-up with a well-written thank-you card, and, once-in-a-blue-moon somebody will walk the road less traveled and do something that blows me away.

In this case, the candidate followed up with an email within an hour of the interview, saying that she’d be delivering an appropriate thank-you. Sure enough, the next day she stops in the office with the likes of a thank-you card that, honestly, is likely the most well-written and appropriate card I’ve ever received.

Nicely done.

It’s follow-up skills and candidates like this that give me hope in the job-seeking race. And they just might have landed her a new job.

Long live the thank-you.