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Should I send a quick thank you email to the screening interviewers? Our career manual says not to, but its also directed more and 2Ls, and says to do it after a callback interview, but since we don't do those as 1Ls, the screening interview is the final one. Kinda thinking I should...?

Edit: they also didn't give me cards/contact info and said they would get back to me. Don't know if thats indicative of anything or not.

I wouldn't.

holdencaulfield wrote:I wouldn't.

Ok. The more I think about it the worse of an idea it seems, the interviews were only 20 minutes... don't think I will at this point.

Anonymous User wrote:

holdencaulfield wrote:I wouldn't.

Ok. The more I think about it the worse of an idea it seems, the interviews were only 20 minutes... don't think I will at this point.

I talked to my screener interviewer on the phone for more than 45 minutes and she really liked me. So I sent a thank you e-mail to her. I guess it depends on how you feel about your conversation with your interviewer.

I've sent thank you emails to all my interviewers so far. I kept them very short and tried to work in something that was unique to each interview.

Almost all of them sent short responses back and sounded really pleased.

I think CSO's caution against it b/c they've heard horror stories of kids messing up and having typos or sounding really contrived. Depending on what type of interviewer/writer you are, it could help a tiny bit and could potentially hurt a lot. So definitely more risk than reward, but if you're fairly certain you are the type of person who has almost 0 risk associated w/ writing them, they can probably leave a small positive impression.

People here are sending hand-written thank-yous to screeners.

I had an interviewer tell me at end of an interview that I wouldn't hear back for two weeks. I sent a thank you email the day after and got an email back within the hour offering me the position. It wasn't an OCI, but I can't help thinking it helped in my case. I think it really depends on the situation/interviewer.

Absolutely not necessary. Obviously you can send it if you want, but interviewers are busy and they're not expecting it and it doesn't really add anything.

fishy wrote:I had an interviewer tell me at end of an interview that I wouldn't hear back for two weeks. I sent a thank you email the day after and got an email back within the hour offering me the position. It wasn't an OCI, but I can't help thinking it helped in my case. I think it really depends on the situation/interviewer.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

thesealocust wrote:Absolutely not necessary. Obviously you can send it if you want, but interviewers are busy and they're not expecting it and it doesn't really add anything.

fishy wrote:I had an interviewer tell me at end of an interview that I wouldn't hear back for two weeks. I sent a thank you email the day after and got an email back within the hour offering me the position. It wasn't an OCI, but I can't help thinking it helped in my case. I think it really depends on the situation/interviewer.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Right, because I said the offer was because of the thank you. I was just adding a data point to say there probably isn't one right answer all the time. I agree it probably has a negligible effect overall.

TCR

Anonymous User wrote:I've sent thank you emails to all my interviewers so far. I kept them very short and tried to work in something that was unique to each interview.

Almost all of them sent short responses back and sounded really pleased.

I think CSO's caution against it b/c they've heard horror stories of kids messing up and having typos or sounding really contrived. Depending on what type of interviewer/writer you are, it could help a tiny bit and could potentially hurt a lot. So definitely more risk than reward, but if you're fairly certain you are the type of person who has almost 0 risk associated w/ writing them, they can probably leave a small positive impression.

fishy wrote:

thesealocust wrote:Absolutely not necessary. Obviously you can send it if you want, but interviewers are busy and they're not expecting it and it doesn't really add anything.

fishy wrote:I had an interviewer tell me at end of an interview that I wouldn't hear back for two weeks. I sent a thank you email the day after and got an email back within the hour offering me the position. It wasn't an OCI, but I can't help thinking it helped in my case. I think it really depends on the situation/interviewer.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Right, because I said the offer was because of the thank you. I was just adding a data point to say there probably isn't one right answer all the time. I agree it probably has a negligible effect overall.

Then why even say:

It wasn't an OCI, but I can't help thinking it helped in my case.

Because if you think it has a negligible effect overall then there's not really a point for you "but it helped me" shtick.

I sent thank you e-mails, make sure they are not generic work in something from the interview. If interviewed by more than one person at a firm, make sure to not send identical thank yous, personalize them. I recieved positive responses, not sure if they will help long term but they certainly do not hurt.

Every one of my OCIs I was the first or second person interviewed (early morning slot), and then I sent a thank you email to the partner at the end of the day, making it personalized if possible. I'm not sure whether it worked or not. The first one I got no response, but then a callback two days later. Most of the others I received a follow up email, but these interviews were all within the last 7-10 days, and no one I've talked to has gotten a callback (and the firms all designated the week of 18th as when we'd hear).

I'd agree with the above, that if you are a poor writer, or are prone to making typos/crafting an awkward email, then I wouldn't do it. You definitely want to write the email in such a way that it does not require a response, but that they can respond if they want to (don't follow up with a specific question; you want it to be pleasant and ideally bring up something that you connected on during the interview).