The Forgotten Art Of The Handwritten Personal Thank You Note

We all love getting a thank you as we love receiving compliments. 

A personal thank you note is really powerful when you've secured an interview, whether it's sent to the recruiter, to the hiring person that you interviewed with, or both – it’s really, really valuable.

And why it's so important and why it's so useful and why it can really open up doors for you is because it's so unexpected.

Most of us will leave a quick, thank you message or we'll text a quick, thank you to someone - but here's the thing about a handwritten personal thank you note.

It is kind of old school, isn't it, it's not the done thing anymore.

There's so many things that I consider, or most of us consider old school – stuff that's not done anymore.

That's not part of our current culture, not part of millennial culture or gen X or Y or whatever culture you want to call it.

But you know what? Those old school things are often the things that make a difference.

I can't say I've received many personal thank you notes from people who interviewed with me when I was hiring for huge transformation projects in corporate.

But I will say that the ones who did, the handful who did send me a personal thank you note for the opportunity to interview and for the tips and tricks that I gave them during the course of the interview – they were the ones who stood out for me.

Now, sometimes they weren't the right fit for that particular role I was hiring for, but here's what I did.

I made a note of what they’d done and how they’d taken the time to write a personal thank you note - and I kept that person on file. And as soon as a suitable role became available on the project, guess who I contacted? That’s right - the one who had had the courtesy to send me a personal thank you note.

I've done it many times when I was interviewing for some of my roles in corporate. And it is something that I encourage all the people I work with, all my clients to send a personal, thank you note to the recruiter, to the interviewer, to the hiring manager or company, because it's so unexpected.

It makes you memorable and displays and demonstrates your courtesy and your gratitude and goes a long way in making someone want to collaborate and work with you.

It’s such a very simple thing, but really powerful.

Don't underestimate the power of the handwritten personal thank you note.