After the interview – A written thank you

We’re not talking a hand shake and verbal note of appreciation, I’m talking some sort of written thank you note that makes it’s way to the interviewer’s / employer’s desk two to three days later. But you want to edge out your competition, don’t you? Here’s a tip that will put you in front of the pack while displaying your forethought and motivation.

Bring your thank you with you to the interview!

What a novel concept! You’ve just interviewed for the perfect automotive technician position, it’s close to home, the pay is great and the guys at the shop are down to earth. You want this job, bad. But wait, the interviewer told you before you left “We’re interviewing a few more candidates and we’ll let you know by the end of the week.” You’ve gotta have this job. So come prepared!

Go out to your local Dollar Tree or Dollar General, pick up a couple of differently styled packs of 3×5 ‘Thank You’ card packs for a couple of bucks. Pick something that seems appropriate professionally, don’t get something with painted bunnies hopping with sheep spewing some sort of touching colloquialism. This is such a low cost – for high impression technique, you can spring for a stash of cards.

Before your interview, use one of those thank yous and nicely hand write a note to the unknown interviewer. If you can, address them by name. If you can’t address them by name because the individual you addressed your cover letter to is known to be different than the interviewer, don’t address it at all. Just start out the card by saying;

I just wanted to write a short note to thank you today for my interview. I appreciated…

What do I say in my hand written thank you?

Remember, the interviewer will be reading this during lunch, later on in the day, or later on in the week. This card is a reminder to let them know you’re interested, you’re motivated and serves as a refresher on your important skills sets.

The first two items are taken care of by just writing a hand written note. You can actually restate how interested you are in the position and then highlight why you think you would be perfect for the job. Continuing with the text from above, you might finish off your hand written thank you note like this;

I appreciate your time and am excited at the prospect of working at ‘X auto shop’. I believe that I would be a perfect fit for your location based on my experience in repairing ‘X’ and my knowledge about ‘X car systems’. I will follow up with you more next week, but if you need to get in contact with me before then you can reach me at (phone number).

Now, you might think, “How do I know what to spotlight if I pre-write my thank you?” That is a very good question.

Hopefully you have done some research about the auto shop and the technician position you’re applying for before you go into the interview, mostly online. You should be able to kind of guess what points would interest the interviewer the most. But here is another tip.

If you can pull away during the interview or after before everything wraps up, you can finish nicely writing the note / addressing it in the bathroom or in your car. Not ideal, but it works, and can make that much more of an impression.

Handing out the thank you note

After your interview for the automotive technician position is finished, shake hands and then open your professional briefcase / folder (You have one of these right? With extra resumes and cover letters?) and pull out the thank you card. Just hand it to the interviewer and thank then for the time to interview you today.

The other option is to get the card to someone before you leave. If you feel strongly about writing something specific pertaining to the interview, and you couldn’t logically pull away during the interview you might want to finish up the note out in your car and bring it back in to the receptionist.

You still need to write the long thank you

When you get home, make some notes about the interview at the very least. I know I personally am exhausted after an interview, it can be a lot of prep and a lot of pressure. You may not feel like typing up the long thank you letter right away.

But you still need to write this letter, 3-4 paragraphs restating some of the items in the technician interview. This hand written thank you note does not take the place of the mailed letter, but this is a quick, easy little way of getting that extra edge on your competition and landing that perfect auto career.