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Comment by varjag | Hacker News Reader

Interesting, but

> 4. Wait a week to send a thank you note. Or don't send one at all.

got me thinking. Is it an American thing? What are you thanking them for anyway?

I've never sent a thank you note. I've received maybe 1 from the ~200 interviews I've conducted in 15 years. ( The candidate that sent it was awful.) Is anyone offended if they don't receive one ?

I can't say it would really make a big difference to get a "thank you" and I've never sent more than cursory thanks.

One thing I have done, though, when interviewing for a job, is to not ask all my ?'s when the interview enters the "what do you have to ask about us?" phase. I try to keep one in reserve and send that to someone in my interview loop after the fact. I feel that it shows continued interest in the position and I have never gotten a negative reaction from anyone for asking a follow-up ?.

To me, sending a thank you email does two things: reiterates interest and keeps you in their short-term memory (consider that the company may have interviewed several candidates in a few days).

I've sent thank-you emails in the past. Never longer than two sentences, but it was always of the flavor, "I enjoyed speaking with you today, I hope to discuss the position more." I can't really say how much it helped, but I know it didn't hurt as I've had a couple job offers that way.

I think it's an anachronism. I've interviewed well over a hundred candidates for various engineering positions, and it's extremely rare to get a follow-up. The few that I have received came across as kind of stalkerly. But maybe that's just me.

The only situation I can imagine sending one is if a couple of weeks go by and you still haven't had any response after the interview (which usually isn't a good sign anyway.)

What kind of follow ups have you gotten that seem stalkerly? Usually when I send them, I just say "Thanks for your time, I look forward to hearing more about the position."(albeit more professionally).

If they say, "Thanks for your time. I look forward to hearing more about the position-perhaps when you arrive tomorrow at 8:15 in the parking lot? I'll have your favorite latte in hand" then I would agree that it's stalkerly :)

I'm an American and have never and would never send a thank you note. They need me, I don't need them.

Yeah, I thought that one was interesting. I can't imagine hiring or not hiring a candidate based on whether they sent a thank you note, and I certainly don't expect a handwritten note! However, if a candidate follows up in email with some answers / examples / code / whatnot for questions that came up in the interview, that would be a good sign.

... I signed up here to ask the exact same thing.

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