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Post Card after a job interview

McGiord

McGiord

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 5, 2003
4,558
290
Dark Castle
Hi, I had a job interview on Wednesday I already sent a Thank You email after, however the recruiter who is helping me suggests me to also send a Post Card.
Have anyone in the forum done this before? What type of postcard should I use? Any place to buy them or suggestions are highly appreciated.

Thanks
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Lamborghini Revent?n
 
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McGiord said:
Hi, I had a job interview on Wednesday I already sent a Thank You email after, however the recruiter who is helping me suggests me to also send a Post Card.
Have anyone in the forum done this before? What type of postcard should I use? Any place to buy them or suggestions are highly appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...
if you send something in paper make it a short letter in decent quality paper but nothing over the top. postcards are a stupid format to file away and tend to get scratched up and dirty in the mail. make sure all your contact info is easy to read on the letter, don't write a lot on it.

i often got letters and kept them with the cv's. but i would not spend more than 2 min reading/filing this letter, so keep it short.
 
shecky said:
you should get some plain white Crane stationary and envelopes and do a handwritten note.
Click to expand...

what job are you applying for? i'm in biotech. handwritten is not an advantage here as far as i have seen. most of my colleagues (and I) are on the pragmatical side. maybe in artistic/creative jobs handwritten is better.
 
Don't send a postcard. It's unprofessional.

Use decent quality paper, print them, don't write them.

Having said that, I must have interviewed 50 to 100 people over the last 5 years and I haven't had a single thank you letter (and it's not that I'm some monster :p ). I work in a very large investment bank... maybe HR just don't forward them to me.
 
My assumption is that the advice the recruiter gave you is a means to make yourself stand out. Post cards are as uncommon as thank you notes these days. Putting your thank-you on a tastefully clever post card could conceivably lead the interviewer to remember you and thus increase your chances. It's the sort of thing that might work with the right sort of organization, but not if more than a handful of people are in the habit of doing it. If it became a trend it would become annoying quite quickly.
 
Thank you all for the posts.
The job I'm applying for is in the quality engineering field for a tier one automotive supplier, and I was not convinced to send a handwritten postcard.
Therefore this what I just did: went to a nearby Hallmark Store and bought a blank envelope with its card from the stationaery section, the card can be folded close, and when it's open is 6x8", then used Pages to write it like a short letter, print it with my HP inkjet and also printed a big "Thank You" in the front of the card. I put it inside the matching paper envelope and then mail it inside a mailing envelope.
Now is in my mailbox waiting for the postman.
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Dodge Adventurer history
 
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firestarter said:
Don't send a postcard. It's unprofessional.

Use decent quality paper, print them, don't write them.

Having said that, I must have interviewed 50 to 100 people over the last 5 years and I haven't had a single thank you letter (and it's not that I'm some monster :p ). I work in a very large investment bank... maybe HR just don't forward them to me.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much my experience too. And even if I did get one, I don't see it impacting the selection process.
 
Is this something new?

I've interviewed more people than I care to remember and had a fair few interviews myself. Other than a good handshake and a verbal "Thank You" I've never come across this idea. If I was the interviewer I'd think it a little creepy to receive a thank you card.
 
Go out to the store and buy a box of plan thank you cards with nothing really on them.

They are about the size of a post card but much higher quilaty paper and come with nice envelopes to put them in. Write a quite note, put the address and stamp on it and it is good to go.
 
scotthayes said:
Is this something new?

I've interviewed more people than I care to remember and had a fair few interviews myself. Other than a good handshake and a verbal "Thank You" I've never come across this idea. If I was the interviewer I'd think it a little creepy to receive a thank you card.
Click to expand...

I think it is more of a lost art. It used to be a much more common. In todays world not so much.
 
Hmmm....

Back in April, I interviewed for an assistant professor of photography position at a college. The interview went pretty well, but about a week after flying back home, I sent them a postcard. I'm an artist, so my postcards are custom designed as promotional items for my photography. On the back, in ink I wrote that I enjoyed my visit and looked forward to hearing from them.

Fast forward to now... today, I just unpacked all of my items in my new office there.
 
Sending a postcard is nice.

But it does absolutely NOTHING for your prospective hiring.

NOTHING.

If it does, shame on those people. (though the guy above can get away with that because maybe his custom design was what sold them on his abilities)
 
Sdashiki said:
Sending a postcard is nice.

But it does absolutely NOTHING for your prospective hiring.

NOTHING.

If it does, shame on those people. (though the guy above can get away with that because maybe his custom design was what sold them on his abilities)
Click to expand...

Of course it does. You're competing against literally hundreds of other candidates. If the top 4 people had similar qualifications, don't you think they will consider the ones that were courteous and made the effort to thank the interviewers with a thank you note (be it electronic or paper) will be considered higher then the individuals that didn't.

In this economy you need to do everything possible to stand out among the crowd and convey to the prospective employer, your professionalism, and desire to work there. A thank you note, helps promote that.
 
If I had interviewed people and was looking who to select - I'd find a thank you email as well as a postcard a bit needy/desperate.

I think a verbal thank you at the end of the interview is all that you should do. That's the interview over, and anything you do after that, it just seems a bit in your face.

He'd read the email, probably think, "ok", then get the postcard and be like, "who does this guy think he is..?".

Just my two pence..
 
A thank you note by email sent within three hours to each member of the interviewing panel swung my last job for me from a couple of other candidates. This is what I was explicitly told afterwards.

Not only is it an act of courtesy, it does two other things:

1. It keeps you fresh in their minds, but more importantly...

2. With care not to do an explicitly hard sell, it allows you to make a short closing statement, an elevator pitch, on areas you thought were perhaps weak in the interview.

Not sure about the postcard, though. Might work in more creative fields, whereas more formal professions might prefer a letter. Whatever its form, it really should be sent within 48 hours of interview, 24 preferably.
 
Gelfin said:
My assumption is that the advice the recruiter gave you is a means to make yourself stand out. Post cards are as uncommon as thank you notes these days. Putting your thank-you on a tastefully clever post card could conceivably lead the interviewer to remember you and thus increase your chances. It's the sort of thing that might work with the right sort of organization, but not if more than a handful of people are in the habit of doing it. If it became a trend it would become annoying quite quickly.
Click to expand...

For me it would seem to be cloying, "Look how cool I am!". I think anyone who sent me a post card after an interview would get crossed off the list pretty fast.

Blue Velvet said:
A thank you note by email sent within three hours to each member of the interviewing panel swung my last job for me from a couple of other candidates. This is what I was explicitly told afterwards.

Not only is it an act of courtesy, it does two other things:

1. It keeps you fresh in their minds, but more importantly...

2. With care not to do an explicitly hard sell, it allows you to make a short closing statement, an elevator pitch, on areas you thought were perhaps weak in the interview.
Click to expand...

That's the way to do it. The thing about the post card is that it seems highly impersonal and makes one wonder just how many other places this person has sent this postcard.
 
Suprised at the posts here

Hmmm, interesting. In my experience it is ALWAYS recommended to send a short, professional thank you note after an interview. It gives you a chance to mention something you forgot, and to reiterate an important point from the interview and express your interest in the position.

I would always send a hand written note, but then I'm in the non-profit world, not anywhere near the tech world.

Who doesn't want to be thanked?
 
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