Do not send "thank you" notes after OCI/callback interviews. Forum

[84651846190]

if I go on-campus, I've already volunteered to spend an 8 hour day interviewing. The idea that receiving a thank-you note is somehow an unpardonable waste of my time is insane.

I didn't get this about the OP's post either. Taking a few hours or more to interview candidates seems like a relatively big commitment of time and effort. Why get so irked by an email or two that takes a few seconds to deal with after doing all that?

Most people at my office who do interviews do not volunteer to do interviews.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

Reminder to everyone: While you're busting your ass to try and land your dream job, there are people out there who will ding you for sending a fucking thank you note, because how dare you interrupt them for ten seconds to show your gratitude.

Just LOL at this profession.

[84651846190]

Reminder to everyone: While you're busting your ass to try and land your dream job, there are people out there who will ding you for sending a fucking thank you note, because how dare you interrupt them for ten seconds to show your gratitude.

Just LOL at this profession.

I wouldn't ding anyone for sending me a thank you note, unless I felt exactly the same about two candidates and one of them sent me an OBVIOUSLY CANNED thank you note with absolutely NO SUBSTANCE unique to our interview. In that case, I would pick the person who sent me nothing.

Obviously, if you have something to say that is unique to our interview or want to follow up on something we talked about with a question or two, it would probably be a positive sign of interest.

I'm only talking about stupid one-line thank you notes with nothing unique to the interview in them.

[09042014]

I bet you fill out your eval 20 seconds after the interview ends though right?

[84651846190]

I bet you fill out your eval 20 seconds after the interview ends though right?

I usually fill it out after the recruiting coordinator reminds me to fill it out.

[NYSprague]

I replied, but then I remembered this thank you note question has been discussed ad nauseum all ready.

[Br3v]

What about parents and ASW?

[El Pollito]

Reminder to everyone: While you're busting your ass to try and land your dream job, there are people out there who will ding you for sending a fucking thank you note, because how dare you interrupt them for ten seconds to show your gratitude.

Just LOL at this profession.

Let's be honest, most of the associates here don't have the clout to affect a hiring decision.

[Anonymous User]

I explicitly tell interviewees not to send me thank you notes. Many send them anyways. Can't follow directions? Unfavorable evaluation from me.

[brazleton]

.

[daleearnhardt123]

What I'm gathering from this post is that thank you notes are usually a poor decision. They are probably at best a net-zero, and at worst they can hurt you. I think of it in the following terms: For every interaction during the OCI process, you can accumulate a certain amount of "points" so to speak. Those points can be negative, or they can positive, or they can just be zero. Zero being a completely neutral interaction.
What this post has indicated to me is that thank you letters can range, on a scale of -10 to +10, from maybe a -3 on the "bad" end to, at best, a +1 on the better end. And that +1 seems to be predicated on your having put some thought into the note and included novel things that were discussed in your interview. That's a massive time expenditure if you're doing that for every interview. AND, on top of that, there's a possibility you botch it and get a net-negative.

All in all, it seems like thank you notes are a fairly high risk proposition with an EXTREMELY low chance of a positive return. Doesn't seem like it makes any sense to send them.

[Neal Patrick Harris]

"V20" Thread.

[dbg]

V20 associate here. I don't mind getting thank you notes. It's kind of nice. Won't rescue you if you sucked, but it's not bad. If anything, after this thread I would say send them so that you have less of a chance of ending up working with the kind of person who is like, "GAHHH I was waiting for a certain email and then a DIFFERENT email from someone I interviewed came through, having the audacity to THANK me!!! How dare he!"

I mean, seriously, at most firms, participating in recruiting is a choice. If I do callbacks, I've already volunteered to spend 30 minutes plus follow-up calls with you; if I go on-campus, I've already volunteered to spend an 8 hour day interviewing. The idea that receiving a thank-you note is somehow an unpardonable waste of my time is insane.

You don't have to send one and it doesn't hurt if not, but if you want to, my only advice on thank you notes is to have them reflect the "stiffness" of the interview. If you interviewed with an associate who was around your same age, don't say, "Dear Mr. Smith, I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to meet with me. I continue to believe I would be an asset to X, Y, and Z LLP." Try more along the lines of, "Dave, it was nice getting the chance to talk to you about your practice and, in particular, bankruptcy and reorganization. I really enjoyed my callback at X, Y, and Z, and it seems like a great group of people. Hope you enjoyed that Yankees game you mentioned!" And with partners, make a judgment call -- were they the old, formal type? Or more casual?

nice first post

It was actually a pretty great first post. What's laughable is you scrambling all over the thread once you got called out for being a giant douche.

Thanks for the props. I've actually been around under different handles each of the past two years. Every year around recruiting time, I start lurking again for a few weeks, and then finally read some post that compels me to create a new handle (always forgetting passwords) so I can respond to something crazy. This year, OP's was the post.

Not much interest in beating this dead horse, but let's all take a moment to think about how crazy it is that we are debating the possibility that thank-you notes are a "high risk proposition" or a "likely negative" or whatever. It's a f-ing thank you note. If you like sending thank you notes and feel like the vibe is right, send one. That's what I did for about 50% of my interviewers when I interviewed. But if thinking about whether or not to send one is going to give you an aneurysm, don't send one.

[daleearnhardt123]

Just doesn't sound like there's anything to be gained. Even if most attorneys won't be put-off by a generic/cookie-cutter thank you note, why bother if they aren't doing any good?

[Chrstgtr]

I know my school suggests that we send in thank you notes. Is this true for all schools and if so why when so many actual attorneys say they hate it? OCS ineptitude....again?

Basically does anyone at a firm know of a person in a hiring position who actually looks for thank you notes?

[Rahviveh]

Just doesn't sound like there's anything to be gained. Even if most attorneys won't be put-off by a generic/cookie-cutter thank you note, why bother if they aren't doing any good?

Seems like a stupid trend set by gunners and strivers that the rest of the sheep follow blindly. Like most things in law school. A sincere in-person "thank you for taking the time to speak to me" right after the interview should be enough.

[suzige]

Ugh.

[kalvano]

Just doesn't sound like there's anything to be gained. Even if most attorneys won't be put-off by a generic/cookie-cutter thank you note, why bother if they aren't doing any good?

Seems like a stupid trend set by gunners and strivers that the rest of the sheep follow blindly. Like most things in law school. A sincere in-person "thank you for taking the time to speak to me" right after the interview should be enough.

JFC, it's not "gunning and striving." It's basic, if somewhat old-fashioned, courtesy.

[84651846190]

lol @ TLS, just lol

[Cicero76]

I know my school suggests that we send in thank you notes. Is this true for all schools and if so why when so many actual attorneys say they hate it? OCS ineptitude....again?

Basically does anyone at a firm know of a person in a hiring position who actually looks for thank you notes?

Yes. I know a couple partners/a nonprofit director who dock candidates if they don't send thank you notes after an interview. In fact, my boss came in just last week to inform us interns that we "had better send thank you notes for any interview we do" because so few from the search he was currently doing had sent them, and he was pissed.

This is the South though, where courtesy is expected rather than ridiculed. The kind of guy who dings someone because the thank-you note he took the time to send was insufficiently sincere or creative must be awful to be around.

[dixiecupdrinking]

lol @ TLS, just lol

Honestly when you're getting worked up about someone sending you an email when you were expecting another email it might be time for a vacation or a career change.

[09042014]

I know my school suggests that we send in thank you notes. Is this true for all schools and if so why when so many actual attorneys say they hate it? OCS ineptitude....again?

Basically does anyone at a firm know of a person in a hiring position who actually looks for thank you notes?

Yes. I know a couple partners/a nonprofit director who dock candidates if they don't send thank you notes after an interview. In fact, my boss came in just last week to inform us interns that we "had better send thank you notes for any interview we do" because so few from the search he was currently doing had sent them, and he was pissed.

This is the South though, where courtesy is expected rather than ridiculed. The kind of guy who dings someone because the thank-you note he took the time to send was insufficiently sincere or creative must be awful to be around.

You shouldn't have to gravel after an interview. It's not courtesy.

[Anonymous User]

Like everything else in life, it is a judgment call. If you are interviewing with a very large office that has a huge summer class, there is probably little to be gained (but much to be lost) from sending a thank you note. If, however, you are interviewing at an office with a relatively small summer class, then I think there is quite a bit to be gained from thoughtful thank you notes that re-emphasize your interest in working in that particular office.

I took the time to write personal (but brief--as in two paragraph max) thank you notes to everyone with whom I interviewed during callbacks. With only one meaningless exception, I never heard anything back from the attorneys in the larger offices (think NYC-headquartered vault firms), but, not only did I get responses to most of the thank you notes sent to attorneys at smaller offices, I know that they helped get me offers at least two of those smaller offices (NYC satellite offices for non-NYC headquartered vault firms with summer classes of less than 10 SAs). And I know that from the direct feedback from the recruiters at each of those offices as they explicitly mentioned my thoughtful thank you notes when they extended their offers.

TLS generalizations are often quite useful, but do not substitute them for simply acting like a reasonable, sincere, polite human being if you actually have the ability to act in such a way.

[Spartan_Alum_12]

What I'm gathering from this post is that thank you notes are usually a poor decision. They are probably at best a net-zero, and at worst they can hurt you. I think of it in the following terms: For every interaction during the OCI process, you can accumulate a certain amount of "points" so to speak. Those points can be negative, or they can positive, or they can just be zero. Zero being a completely neutral interaction.
What this post has indicated to me is that thank you letters can range, on a scale of -10 to +10, from maybe a -3 on the "bad" end to, at best, a +1 on the better end. And that +1 seems to be predicated on your having put some thought into the note and included novel things that were discussed in your interview. That's a massive time expenditure if you're doing that for every interview. AND, on top of that, there's a possibility you botch it and get a net-negative.

All in all, it seems like thank you notes are a fairly high risk proposition with an EXTREMELY low chance of a positive return. Doesn't seem like it makes any sense to send them.

Before I started reading this forum I would have sent thank you notes no question. Now I'm leaning towards not sending any using the same reasoning you used above.

[Neal Patrick Harris]

Just be genuine about it. If you're inclined to do it, then send a note. No one will care because it's genuine. and it may even help you. If you're not that person, then don't force it because it'll come off fake and generalized, and it could hurt...