Post-Interview Follow Up- What's your preferred method?

[JBums1028]

So I'm curious what everyone does for thank you notes, because when I did my interview weekends I witnessed some interesting methods I had never seen before. So what were you taught as the appropriate medium for sending a thank you note?

 

I was always taught to do one of two things: either mail a formal business letter to the interviewer or send an email. However, I saw a lot of people at my interview weekends doing hand written thank you cards (i.e. they bought a pack of thank you cards and wrote the thank you same day. Then passed it along to someone in the program to deliver to the appropriate person). I'm wondering if this is a field of Education thing and maybe that's why I was taught differently.

 

Just curious to hear what everyone's preferred method is!

[peachypie]

I have always done a personalized email.  Hand written thank you notes are going way above and beyond.  

[TakeruK]

These thank you notes (email, letters, card, whatever) are basically going to be glanced at and then discarded/forgotten about. It makes more sense to go with email since that does not waste paper! Also, email allows the prof to easily reply back to you if they have more to say!

[JBums1028]

Yeah I agree with you all. I've always done email for the reasons you guys have stated. I just remember thinking it was odd because at one of my interview weekends, just about everyone did the hand written notes. So it wasn't like someone just decided to get creative. I was one of maybe a handful of people who didn't do thank you cards. So that's why I was wondering if it's an education/student affairs thing... or they all had a mentor who said, "do this, it will help you stand out" and it ended up backfiring since they did what everyone else did. I don't know... It was just really thought provoking to me since I had never seen anyone do that and no one had ever suggested it to me.

[ZeChocMoose]

Yeah I agree with you all. I've always done email for the reasons you guys have stated. I just remember thinking it was odd because at one of my interview weekends, just about everyone did the hand written notes. So it wasn't like someone just decided to get creative. I was one of maybe a handful of people who didn't do thank you cards. So that's why I was wondering if it's an education/student affairs thing... or they all had a mentor who said, "do this, it will help you stand out" and it ended up backfiring since they did what everyone else did. I don't know... It was just really thought provoking to me since I had never seen anyone do that and no one had ever suggested it to me.

 

It's not an education/student affairs thing.  I think it is just a UConn thing.  (I'm assuming that's the school you are talking about.)  I haven't noticed any other higher ed/student affairs program with the hand written notes culture.  

[JBums1028]

It's not an education/student affairs thing.  I think it is just a UConn thing.  (I'm assuming that's the school you are talking about.)  I haven't noticed any other higher ed/student affairs program with the hand written notes culture.  

 

That was the school where it was most prevalent, but I'd say at least half the applicants also did this at MSU and Grand Valley. I saw it everywhere I interviewed.

Edited March 9, 2014 by JBums1028