1. Are you looking for other HR bloggers? You can check out The Talent Management Blog Power Rankings 2.0 [Sponsored by FOT and the HR Capitalist] and you can read many of those writers (and more) on HRM Today. I was an honorable mention, last August, and now I’m on the Top 25 list. I am tied with Jibber Jobber. That’s pretty good company, akshully.
2. J. William Tincup posted interviews with awesome HR bloggers on his website. Check it out.
3. Finally, you can see John Hollon’s response to my post on writing thank-you notes after an interview. I still hold firm that writing a thank-you note has no bearing on a hiring decision; however, I can’t argue against manners. Here’s where I stand.
- Writing a thank-you note shows old skool class and a good upbringing, but I won’t hire you for your manners. I’ll hire you for your skills, which should include manners, but won’t be determined solely on the inclusion of a thank-you note.
Any additional thoughts? Any others sites we should be visiting, today?
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The way I look at it is this: You have two identical candidates (not that they exist). One sends a thank-you note, the other doesn’t. Who has the edge?
Also, sending the thank-you note puts the candidate front-of-mind.
The other thing is that the cost of sending a thank-you note is trivial. What are you trying to save?
I like how Jason Seiden puts it: Sing from your toes. Put everything on the table. Give it your all.
http://theworkinggeek.com/2008/11/sing-from-your-toes-1.html
When I was interviewing people, in cases where several candidates were equal, I found that little things like thank you notes would raise people in my estimation, especially if they are personalized to the job and don’t feel like form letters. I am older (40), so this might be a generational issue.
On the other hand they can work against you too. I once instantly removed a candidate from the running because they mis-spelled my name in a thank you email.
To the thank you note thing being about manners, I call Bravo Sierra. I think it’s rude to waste unnecessary paper, when there are better alternatives (e-mail). I’m feel safe in saying that Mr. Hollon is probably way smarter than me, but dude, it ain’t the 1800’s anymore.
This is one of those things that I am ambivalent about.
I can say with 100% certainty that I never hired anyone because of their thank you note. I also never skipped anyone over because they didn
woooot! top 25!
on the thank you note issue… i usually have made my mind up on a candidate five minutes into the interview, and by the time they have left the building, i know whether we’re moving forward or not. so the thank you note, by the time it arrives whether by email or mail, it isn’t going to influence my decision. it’s a nice touch, it’s classy, but it won’t ever impact my decision.
@Andy I love Jason Seiden but the person with the best skills has the edge. No two people are ever alike.
@heyrocker I think this is a generational issue, but I’m 33 and we’re not very far apart in age.
@Jimmy My grandmother wants thank you letters. She also wants oatmeal, prunes, and to be left alone during the Wheel/Jeopardy hour.
@Michael I like your perspective. Why do we give a shit about thank you notes? Can we be more irrelevant as a function?
@J.Lee I’m 22.5 — just like my age.
Thank you, again, for the ranking!
From a candidate’s perspective, you never know how an interviewer or hiring manager is going to feel about thank you notes – just look at the range of responses here! Personally, I think it’s better to err on the side of sending one. It may give you an edge, but if not, no harm done (and the paper can always be recycled). It’s a “nice-to-do”, not a “need-to-do”, but to me a well-written, personalized thank you note conveys a certain thoughtfulness and attention to detail, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Laurie — It’s highly debatable if I am smarter than you, or anyone else for that matter, but here’s where I have trouble with your logic on thank-you notes:
* Thank-you notes don’t determine if I am going to hire a person or not, ergo, thank-you notes are a waste of time that people shouldn’t spend their effort on.
I still think you are missing the boat here. I agree completely that you never hire a person because of a thank-you note — I never have, in all the hires I have made — but, that doesn’t mean thank-you notes are without value.
Thank-you notes are about manners and civility, about acknowledging that someone took their time to meet with you personally. And I would make the case that in this day and age, when recruiting and hiring is incredibly distant and impersonal, a thank you note is even more important than ever before.
The save-a-tree argument is nonsense. That’s PC run amuck and is hardly a reason to be discourteous. In my book, sending a thank-you note is always the right thing to do. Must we always look to do something only because we think it will gain us some advantage? Why not do something because it is courteous, civil, and right? Yes, sending a thank-you note after a job interview is old school, but as I said in my blog, good manners never go out of style.
I love a good HR controversy!!!
My response to John Hollon:
I actually looked down upon someone sending me a thank you note after an interview. My thoughts are that if I wanted to hire you, I already would have based on your skills. The thank you note is a suck-up/brown nosing technique and I am not moved by it, rather actually annoyed. Save a tree, and save my time- don\
Breanne – I’m a Gen X/Y borderline as well but the notion that a thank you note = brown nosing/suck up tactic just seems absurd to me.
Sure, it does eat up 8.5 seconds of my day to open (especially paper mail – gasp!) the card, and read through it’s 2 paragraphs… but I don’t think this qualifies as wasting my time. If I’m going to start taking issue with time wasters, I’ll focus my annoyance on candidates who apply to my open positions and are clearly not qualified, have not read the job description and still somehow think it makes sense to click the “apply” button. But for someone who not only read through my ridiculously long job description, put together a thorough, well-written resume and/or cover letter which opened the door to the interview… the least I can do is read their 2 paragraphs and move on.
Will their letter make me hire them? No. But to rule them out because they took time to follow up with me when they weren’t required to… that just seems like crazy-talk! That immediately rules out a large portion of potentially awesome employees who made the “mistake” of thanking you again.
@A Your common-sense approach makes sense. I’m not saying DON’T DO IT. I’m just saying, meh, makes no difference to people like me.
@John I’m conceding on the merit of manners & doing something for the sake of being civil & courteous. The old-school line of thinking is that thank=you-letters make a difference in the hiring process. They may make a difference and influence the collective unconscious — and we might have a better society if everyone sent thank you notes. I’m just saying that they are not difference makers. If you’re looking for the edge in the interview process, look elsewhere.
@Breanne You are totes a shit-disturber and it’s killing me!!
@Melissa Oh man, I love it when Breanne stirs it up on my blog. I’m not sure she would really look down on someone for sending a thank-you-note, but I’m 100% sure that it’s the most awesome, punk rock HR thing I’ve read in a very long time.
As John Hollan wrote, “Thank-you notes are about manners and civility, about acknowledging that someone took their time to meet with you personally.”
Not only do I send notes, I write them on deckle-edged, cotton-rag paper with a real fountain pen.
You seem really helpful and witty, and you like to use
obscene language like sh*tty to seem cool and on the
people’s side. But really, you are just a typical uppity
go get um cheerleader capitalist corporate ladder
climbing overpaid consultant who didn’t want to
be a middle manager because you couldn’t
stand the job anymore. Now you just rant
and point the fingers and get others to do
so in a giant thought form vent matrix that
really doesn’t help anyone. Nothing to do
with ‘punk’ rock–a fake persona.