Conflicting advice on thank you notes Forum

[sumner]

This anonymous recruiter wrote:

"6. There is no need to send thank you notes to anyone with whom you interviewed. You are just generating more paperwork and, once you become an overworked attorney, you will understand why no one needs another piece of correspondence to deal with. No one has ever failed to get an offer because he or she failed to send a thank you note. Please sell yourself in the interview and then leave it at that."

http://abovethelaw.com/2014/04/recruitm ... et-peeves/

I think this is contrary to the collective wisdom of TLS. HOW CAN THAT BE???

[unlicensedpotato]

Noticed that as well. Also saw that they strongly recommend against emailing your resume to a practice group head, which someone recommended earlier on here.

With thank you notes, I wouldn't worry about sending them for big NY firms, but I think TX firms do expect them even if they're just an annoyance for the attorneys.

[aces]

I'm not sure the collective wisdom of TLS is that clear on this question. Lots of folks (myself included) didn't send any thank you notes and advise others to do so as well.

I think the logic is as follows: sending thank-yous usually doesn't hurt, and every once in a while you'll run into a situation where it can help. But it can also be very time consuming (especially if you have a ton of interviews condensed into a very short period of time, a la OCI and the few weeks immediately following it), and making a typo is way worse than not having sent anything at all. My advice would be to not do so for screeners unless there was a particular connection and only do so for callbacks if you are confident that you can do so quickly and without error.

[pertristis]

It depends on the location and the firm. NY firms, it's probably pretty useless. I know of at least one major firm in DE, however, where thank-you notes are mandatory.

[NinerFan]

I would have never sent a hand-written card as a law student, but now that I'm holed up in an office most of the time, I have to say that getting an email thank-you wouldn't register at all among the deluge of emails I get, but getting a snail-mailed card in my inbox would definitely stand out.

I still wouldn't have done it as a student, though, as my handwriting is completely illegible.

[Nelson]

What are you thanking someone for doing with a thank you note exactly? Doing their job? It's a business for everyone involved.

[Anonymous User]

I guess it can help in certain circumstances. Our career services spoke about how an excellent and thoughtful thank you letter got someone a job. In practice your personality probably has to lead to this helping you out. If you clicked with someone, and being yourself means being a little cool or edgy and they liked this, it could hurt what you had going with the over formalized letter. Common sense factors into. If someone is so busy they barely have time to interview the candidates (but are high up) then it's probably going to irritate them if you send more paperwork. The fact is that for the people making the decisions this is not like them picking a job. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt they're having trouble falling asleep because of these decisions. Odds are they know a minute or two in.

[IAFG]

It depends on the location and the firm. NY firms, it's probably pretty useless. I know of at least one major firm in DE, however, where thank-you notes are mandatory.

Really? Potter? I can think of two it isn't.

[Anonymous User]

I think it depends on how long after the interview they submit their decision. Does anyone have any insight take in this process? I had ones where I knew I bombed the one with the partner, and the associate just gave me a look that wasn't dirty, but looked like someone who should not play poker. I think they might be giving their report by the time you get to the next room. For screeners, I don't think I ever did a cover letter and don't know anyone who did. There's so many people and they probably want to go to a nice place to eat, call their spouse and make sure something closed. It just seemed like a bad move.

[NotMyRealName09]

I would have never sent a hand-written card as a law student, but now that I'm holed up in an office most of the time, I have to say that getting an email thank-you wouldn't register at all among the deluge of emails I get, but getting a snail-mailed card in my inbox would definitely stand out.

I still wouldn't have done it as a student, though, as my handwriting is completely illegible.

I feel this way too, buuuuutttttt - at my firm, we fill out our evaluation form immediately and forward it to the recruiting committee that day. So it would have no impact at all - I've already given my thumbs up or down by the time a thank you card arrives - even if it was emailed.

[Danger Zone]

It depends on the location and the firm. NY firms, it's probably pretty useless. I know of at least one major firm in DE, however, where thank-you notes are mandatory.

Really? Potter? I can think of two it isn't.

If it's required at Potter, then that explains a lot...

[thesealocust]

I am an attorney at a large law firm and I do interviews.

Thank you notes don't personally OFFEND me, but when I'm slammed the extra email traffic isn't super pleasing either.

Philosophically, interviews are a sometimes annoying part of my job. I'm not doing you a favor, I'm assessing you for a job on behalf of my employer. It's strictly business.

Most importantly, a thank you literally always arrive after I have submitted my response regarding the candidate's interview, meaning they cannot have an impact on the hiring process.

I am and have always been firmly in the "not necessary" category, at least for very large firms with formal recruitment processes (4 guys in Alabama may require different formalities than the HQ of a firm in a major east coast city)

[arklaw13]

I did a 1L callback and got an offer the next day. Mentioned to the hiring partner that I was in the process if sending out a thank-you email (because I literally was) and he said well we've already decided so you can go ahead and delete that. Wasn't a big deal at all. I think I got lucky and the hiring committee happened to be meeting the day after my callback though. If there had been a lag for a few days, maybe they would have expected a note in the mean time.

[NinerFan]

I would have never sent a hand-written card as a law student, but now that I'm holed up in an office most of the time, I have to say that getting an email thank-you wouldn't register at all among the deluge of emails I get, but getting a snail-mailed card in my inbox would definitely stand out.

I still wouldn't have done it as a student, though, as my handwriting is completely illegible.

I feel this way too, buuuuutttttt - at my firm, we fill out our evaluation form immediately and forward it to the recruiting committee that day. So it would have no impact at all - I've already given my thumbs up or down by the time a thank you card arrives - even if it was emailed.

I'm not saying it changes anything. I'm just saying that I don't care about email thank yous and I like handwritten ones. At the end of the day it has no impact unless they actually end up at the firm.

[MarkRenton]

As an attorney: thank you notes have almost no impact on whether you receive an offer because most interviewers have written your review almost immediately after talking with you (to avoid procrastinating and forgetting exactly who you are). That said, thank you notes are nice and appreciated. Consider that most attorneys can reject doing an interview (it's not like the recruiting director can fire you or anything), and when I take an hour and a half out of my schedule to take a candidate to lunch, that's likely an hour and a half later that I get home. For that reason, when I receive a thank you note afterward saying I appreciated you taking the time and _______, I, and most other similarly situated people, appreciate it.

There is a caveat that there is a slight chance a kind email can help you. If someone who you have interviewed with is on the hiring committee, they could fight for you a little harder or use your courtesy as a tie breaker against someone else since most hiring committees meet only weekly at best. But still, can we stop viewing thank you notes only in the light of "what can it do for me?"

[AP-375]

I thought that a lot of that ATL article was bitter-sounding garbage. Your sense of the situation is much more valuable than any universally-applied absolute rule.
(Ex: I wrote thank you's at some firms, where I really hit it off with people, and didn't at others. I wrote thank you's at the firm that eventually hired me, and have had good continuing relationships with the attorneys that I interviewed with.) I don't think any absolute rule is correct.

[Anonymous User]

A little context-specific advice requested:

I just had a "callback" (it wasn't part of OCI, so it was just a direct to office 3-partner interview) with a UK/US firm in their Asia office. I thought the interview went decently, although I am now concerned about whether I should send a thank you. First, they switched one of the three partners I was going to meet with, so now I do not have the contact information of that partner and I cannot for the life of me remember his name. Tried searching for him in their directory but no familiar faces. If I send a thank you note to two out of the three partners, that will look bad, right? Also, I got a feeling that all partners were really busy (it is Asia, where the office is super lean), as one even had to skip out early for a deal call. My gut feeling is to not to bother with the thank you at this point, what with their workload and the missing partner's contact info. Thoughts?

[Anonymous User]

A little context-specific advice requested:

I just had a "callback" (it wasn't part of OCI, so it was just a direct to office 3-partner interview) with a UK/US firm in their Asia office. I thought the interview went decently, although I am now concerned about whether I should send a thank you. First, they switched one of the three partners I was going to meet with, so now I do not have the contact information of that partner and I cannot for the life of me remember his name. Tried searching for him in their directory but no familiar faces. If I send a thank you note to two out of the three partners, that will look bad, right? Also, I got a feeling that all partners were really busy (it is Asia, where the office is super lean), as one even had to skip out early for a deal call. My gut feeling is to not to bother with the thank you at this point, what with their workload and the missing partner's contact info. Thoughts?

OP here. For the record, this was for a 3L junior associate position, not a 2L summer position.

[jarofsoup]

I think the problem with that recruiter on TSL is that she generalizes her own points of view and applies it to very firm in the U.S.

I think the general consensus is that grammatically correct, emailed thank yous do not hurt. Grammatically incorrect ones do.

My personal feeling is that you do not need to give thank yous for screeners. Especially at OCI b/c the firms see so many people. CB interviews I would probably send thank yous.

[Anonymous User]

I am pretty sure I missed out an offer at my dream firm because of a thank you note. Interviewer had an oddly spelled name which I obviously wasn't intelligent enough to fucking copy and paste his name onto the Dear _____________. Long story short, kicked the interviews ass, sent the thank you note, two weeks later got the ding, I am pretty sure its because of this.

[thesealocust]

I am pretty sure I missed out an offer at my dream firm because of a thank you note. Interviewer had an oddly spelled name which I obviously wasn't intelligent enough to fucking copy and paste his name onto the Dear _____________. Long story short, kicked the interviews ass, sent the thank you note, two weeks later got the ding, I am pretty sure its because of this.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Well done.

The human mind craves rationality and explanation in a world that presents as chaos and uncertainty. The overwhelming majority of qualified and capable candidates won't get any given job they apply for. It's just a mathematical truth that so many people are applying for every spot that employers struggle to pick a very small number of people to give offers too, and for most candidates who don't totally shit the bed there isn't any "reason" for not getting an interview or a job from an application other than "somebody else did."

[El Pollito]

I think they're nice to get but it's not going to change my mind about an interviewee and I've probably already done my evaluation by time I get one, so they're a nice gesture but probably pointless.

[ChardPennington]

As an attorney, I will tell you that thank you notes are ok, but your better move would be texting a picture of your junk to the managing partner.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I am pretty sure I missed out an offer at my dream firm because of a thank you note. Interviewer had an oddly spelled name which I obviously wasn't intelligent enough to fucking copy and paste his name onto the Dear _____________. Long story short, kicked the interviews ass, sent the thank you note, two weeks later got the ding, I am pretty sure its because of this.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Well done.

The human mind craves rationality and explanation in a world that presents as chaos and uncertainty. The overwhelming majority of qualified and capable candidates won't get any given job they apply for. It's just a mathematical truth that so many people are applying for every spot that employers struggle to pick a very small number of people to give offers too, and for most candidates who don't totally shit the bed there isn't any "reason" for not getting an interview or a job from an application other than "somebody else did."

Absolutely this. How well the interviewee feels the interview went isn't remotely an accurate gauge of likelihood of getting the job.

(I mean, misspelling someone's name isn't great, but as someone whose names get misspelled ALL. THE. TIME, I doubt that was definitive.)

[pertristis]

It depends on the location and the firm. NY firms, it's probably pretty useless. I know of at least one major firm in DE, however, where thank-you notes are mandatory.

Really? Potter? I can think of two it isn't.

If it's required at Potter, then that explains a lot...

It was Young Conaway. This was two years ago, so take that for what it's worth.