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I know sending thank you emails is a somewhat necessary evil, but what do you do on the other end?

I know that when I was applying to firms, usually I didn’t get a response from anyone (normal).

Occasionally I would get a response from partners/associates and those firms would always be firms that made offers. I never received a response from a firm that passed.

I received a thank you email and I don’t know if I should respond. I have no idea if the firm is considering hiring this person and I don’t want to give a false sense of hope (I learned from my past experience that a response is usually a good sign).

Should I just ignore it? Feels weird ignoring an email.

This was the first callback interview I did from this end, so not sure about all of this.

I think you’re overthinking it. I would respond because that’s the polite thing to do. I obviously wouldn’t say anything that makes the person expect an offer but I would definitely respond. It sounds like you might be pretty junior, so I don’t think anyone is going to get their hopes up due to your response.

worklifewhat wrote:I think you’re overthinking it. I would respond because that’s the polite thing to do. I obviously wouldn’t say anything that makes the person expect an offer but I would definitely respond. It sounds like you might be pretty junior, so I don’t think anyone is going to get their hopes up due to your response.

*cue nervous law student OP interviewed furiously posting his anxiety on TLS because OP responded 'good luck' in his email which obviously suggests the interview went horribly wrong*

Anonymous User wrote:I know sending thank you emails is a somewhat necessary evil, but what do you do on the other end?

I know that when I was applying to firms, usually I didn’t get a response from anyone (normal).

Occasionally I would get a response from partners/associates and those firms would always be firms that made offers. I never received a response from a firm that passed.

I received a thank you email and I don’t know if I should respond. I have no idea if the firm is considering hiring this person and I don’t want to give a false sense of hope (I learned from my past experience that a response is usually a good sign).

Should I just ignore it? Feels weird ignoring an email.

IME, it's not at all unusual for associates, esp. juniors, to not respond to thank-you notes. Unless you really connected with the interviewee (over and above merely deciding to give a positive eval), I don't see a need to respond. (Or you can wait until the person's extended an offer before responding. I have a number of such "delayed responses" from associates in my email archives.)

(Back when I did CBs as an interviewee, it also felt weird to not send thank-you notes. But the conventional TLS wisdom that NY BigLaw doesn't expect thank-you notes seemed to be spot-on.)