Personal Stationery and Thank You Letters
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Should you send a thank-you letter by e-mail or by snail mail — and on letterhead or stationery? Reader K wonders…
I am a rising 2L and am starting to prepare for the upcoming interview season. I've always been told to write “Thank Yous” after an interview. I haven't had stationary since high school and I'm wondering if you have any recommendations! I want to pick something that represents me, however I want it to be professional and conservative at the same time. Any advice?
We haven't talked about how to thank your interviewers since March 2010 (aww, back when I was anonymous and writing in the plural). I'm curious what the readers have to say about this, because I think my own rules have changed over the past few years. (Pictured: Thank You, originally uploaded to Flickr by vistamommy.)
For my $.02,
– For interview week, I think an e-mailed thank-you is the appropriate thing, within a day or two (tops) of the interview. Hiring and callback decisions are made quickly and I really don't think you have time to wait for the postal service.
– If you do want to mail your thanks, I would do it in a type-written letter on normal-sized paper. Personally, my resume has always had my name at the very top in a large font, and on the next line it has my address, phone number, and email address, all separated by bullet points but on the same line (pic below). Call me cheap, but I've always just copied those two lines for a “personal letterhead” that I've used for printing from my computer; if you wanted to be fancier you could certainly buy some proper letterhead using those same lines from some local place — I believe both Office Max and Staples have a number of reasonably-priced options for creating that kind of stuff.
I think it's an interesting question whether you should use fancy paper or regular printer paper. The last time I interviewed, it felt antiquated to me to send a type-written thank-you note on the nice Crane stock (with matching envelopes!) that I had used since law school. Since then, any business correspondence that I've sent, I've sent on regular paper, using regular envelopes.
– Some thoughts on stationery… Let me be up front: I love stationery. Love love love it. My favorite are correspondence cards with my name on the top in a raised ink — the correspondence cards are the perfect size for brief thank-you notes to my grandmother, my friends, whomever. I got my latest stuff from Fine Stationery, but I've been drooling over some of the patterns and styles available through my friend (and fellow blogger) Kalyn Johnson, who has a new line called Effie's Paper inspired by her grandmother — truly gorgeous stuff. But here's the thing: I think personal stationery is for personal correspondence; see above re: thank-you notes to my grandma. I have once used personal stationery to send business correspondence — to thank a man I'd known for 10+ years and looked at as a mentor — but honestly it felt weird, and in the future I think I'm going to stick with type-written correspondence for business.
But this is just my $.02 — readers, what do you say? Let's take a poll…
P.S. For all of you grammar/spelling dorks out there, here's my simple way of remembering the difference between stationery and stationary:
– StationAry involves Action or the lack thereof
– StationEry may involve Erasers
I like to think I've made those up myself, but perhaps that is part of what my fancy journalism degree bought me.
At my last company I sometimes interviewed large numbers of candidates to fill multiple entry-level positions at once. One time I gave my hire/don’t hire feedback and the next day received a thank you note that was so professional and tailored-to-me/my company that I went back to make sure the interviewee had been passed to the next round of interviews. She had been, but if she hadn’t I would have added her. It wouldn’t have helped if she hadn’t been well qualified for the position, but it gave her an edge because it showed she could communicate professionally and was approaching the position thoughtfully.
I have always opted for personalized stationery.
I understand and appreciate the points about saving contact information and carrying on an e-mail dialogue, but I believe that if the interview was important enough to warrant a handwritten, personalized thank-you, then the employer already has your contact info and there is a good chance you’ve had e-mail dialogue, as well.
The point about expediency is lost on me. The whole point of handwritten correspondence is that it takes longer. The recipient is worth the time and made to feel that way. That is what I like most about it.
As an HR person who interviews regularly, a hand written thank you really sets you apart as a candidate. It won’t make me hire someone who isn’t qualified of course but I love the extra effort. Hand written thank you’s are a lost art.
I Email. I would only send a handwritten note if a) I knew the person really well, as in friend of family, etc. b) I knew the person was very old-school or c) The person did not have email.
I might be a little late to this post to get a reply, but I just moved from DC to TX, and am originally from MA. I’m in the process of looking for work (a few years out of schoolbso not OCI) and I’ve always used non-feminine looking thank you cards (e.g., brown or navy on cream or white) but never personalized. For those of you saying personalized stationery is common in the south, what do you mean? It would never occur to me to use personalized thank you for business, but I wonder if that’s a regional thing. Would you southern ladies suggest I get some? What does it look like? I had some for my wedding but I suspect that looked a lot different from what you’re using for business. Thanks!
Spelling memory tool.
Stationery – pencil. Both words have E in them. You write with a pencil on your stationery.
Quick question – I did send out thank you emails after the interview process. Now that I have accepted the position with notes of thanks is it necessary to send a snail mail thank you note to the HR/ interviewer??