Should I send a thank you email after a job interview?

[20MayJune22]

I attended a face to face interview today. I think it went fairly well, they are interviewing other candidates today/tomorrow. I wouldn't expect to hear back till maybe Friday at the earliest. Should I send a thank you email - does it make any difference? This is my first time job hunting in 13 years, I'm not sure what is normal now.

No, that’s not the done thing
Just wait for them to contact you

No not necessary, good luck!

I've never sent one. I don't think it would make any difference.

Dont do that
Its comes across as try hard

No, definitely not. It’s not necessary and will make you look a little too eager

Thanks! My gut was saying it's not necessary/looks too keen, but it's such a competitive job market - I'm second guessing myself!

Hmm perhaps it’s industry dependent but every job I’ve been offered was after I followed up after interview by email. Of course I haven’t been offered every job I didn’t follow up about, but I do think it’s q basic (in my industry anyway).

No it’s a bit cringe.

Someone has only done it once in all my interviewing. She was an American who had called the female interviewers Ma'am and started the email with Dear Mrs X, Mr Y and Mrs Z. Neither of the women were Mrs anything! It came across as try hard and culturally inappropriate.

This. I think it’s normal. I have done as an applicant and also receive them when interviewing.

I say thank you in the interview.

Nah. Won’t affect the outcome either way. Good luck!!

I have always done it even though it felt a little cringe. If I was interviewing a candidate and liked them, I would appreciate the thank you. But if I didn’t like the candidate then it wouldn’t make any difference to my hiring decision.

I interview a lot. I’ve never had a thank you email and tbh, I’d not welcome one. It would put me off the candidate somewhat.

This is for an Account Management type role for SaaS in professional services, so it might be more conventional in this type of role. Also it might not make any difference.

In my place it wouldn't make any difference because interview responses are scored but if I were to receive one I'd think it was nice, not weird.

I went for a job interview in June. When I left I was clear it was my dream job. I’ve never wanted a job more in my life I sent an email, thanking them for their time and reiterating that I was keen to join the team. I got the job and love it even more than I thought I would!

Aww so please for you! I've been interviewing for jobs, just as I start to get emotionally attached - I get rejected! I'm trying to not get my hopes up. I have 2 x initial Teams interviews tomorrow. Todays one was a F2F with a presentation from me so I'm slightly further down the line on that one, but I imagine they also have another few candidates at this stage.

It's been years since I was in your situation OP but my eldest graduated this summer and had f2f interviews for 6 jobs. He sent thank you emails after all of them and was offered 2. I think that for professional roles it can't harm your chances and takes 90 seconds so why wouldn't you.

A couple of years ago I applied for a job and the interview went well. I waited for a couple of days then sent an email to thank them, tell them I was still interested, etc... They then offered me the job less than 30 minutes after my email. It felt to me like they were waiting for me to confirm my interest before offering me the job.
The thing is, it's not a given that a candidate will still be interested in the job after an interview, some candidate might realise they don't want the job after all, or receive a better offer, so it can't hurt to confirm you are still interested. I do find it a bit cringe to thank the recruiters though, as the candidate is the one who will put the most effort when interviewing (I still do it though as it seems it's the rule of the game).

No don’t be weird

I interview a lot and maybe 30% of the time get a thank you email.

It wouldn’t sway me one direction or the other as generally you can tell at interview if someone is putting it on, and so their thank you emails don’t land the same as the thank yous from the genuinely interested ones.

if you’d like to thank them then it wouldn’t impact negatively if it was me tha interviewed you that day.

I recruit and it certainly wouldn’t go negatively against you. If I liked you from interview it’d be appreciated, if I didn’t then it wouldn’t tip the scale.

I’m a believer in showing that you’re keen if you really are. I’d once applied for an events job in a hotel and between applications and interview they had an open event (wedding fair type thing) so I went and introduced myself to the events manager. Don’t know if it made any difference but I did get the job.

I couldn’t make the pre-agreed time of my interview because trains were delayed by bad weather. It was a 2 hour journey.

The interviewers kindly reconvened later in the day allowing me time to get there.

I followed up with a thank you note because the interview team of 3 had re-arranged their day. They put my note up on the HR notice board and best of all I got the job!

I work in Ent Sales for software. I would suggest that you follow up with an email, poss including your thoughts on how you might approach the job based on your discussions to today. Personally, I usually provide a deck, summarising my understanding and layout my thoughts of how I’d approach the job. As some useful stats where I’ve done this: I joined a German Co; VP Sales flew into London for interviews - 10 people. Post the interview I sent an email & deck with my thoughts. I was hired. Of the other 9, 2 others sent thank you emails - basic 1 para, the others did nothing. In 2017, I interviewed with a company in London - again, competitive but fewer candidates. Again, I followed up with the hiring manager based on our discussions; he approved me to the VP; I took a ring bound printed a5 copy of the deck I’d sent the hiring mgr to that interview. The VP’s response when I handed it over as that he’d seen it and it was the reason I was meeting him - the only candidate who was and the hard copy just confirmed his assessment.
Ask yourself what would you be doing if you’d just come out of a client meeting (of any kind) - hanging around for an answer or re-presenting the reason your deal should be done.
The reality is, it doesn’t need to be perfect - you’re outside the organisation, so there are things you don’t know - but all you need to do is outrun the other zebras not the lion.

Good Luck!