Five Tips to a Successful Interview

The interview follow-up letter is the last of the essential tools in your job-hunting bag. This is for more than one reason. The two obvious ones are the thank you and follow-up, and the other important reason is to fill in any holes that you suspect that you left open during the interview.

1. Write The Follow-Up Letter Immediately: Once you return home, write the follow-up letter the same day as the interview. Being late with the letter can potentially reflect badly on you, or worse, make you be forgotten.

2. Include An Incident That Occurred At The Interview: Make reference to any small but pleasant incident (or subject matter) that might have occurred at the interview that will catch the interviewers’ attention. How will this help you? This makes you stand out from the crowd and triggers memories of the entire interview. It gets the interviewer to think beyond the notes he or she made during the interview.

3. Write To Every Interviewer: Writing individual letters not only demonstrates your manners but emphasizes your recognition of individual opinions. Not everyone will be impressed with the same things in the interview; there can be at least one person who is either more or less impressed or even indifferent. Address each one of them independently, and write each letter differently. One another point here is they may (and probably will) discuss the letters among themselves at some point.

4. Show Your Awareness Of Company Culture: Employers like it when they know that a candidate is knowledgeable about company work ethics and culture. This helps eliminate any ambiguity that whether you will fit in at the company.

5. Write In A Positive Tone: Don’t make the letter a ritual or boring one. Use language and a format which is as lively and professional as possible. Proofreading the letter is critical. There is no restriction on handwritten letters or the delivery method; mail it, email it or even hand deliver it, but make sure it gets there.

You can’t ignore the hidden power of interview follow-up letters. They help cement your candidacy, considering there were probably countless other candidates for the position. The fact is, not many interviewees will write any type of letter, let alone a follow-up letter. The follow-up letter demonstrates your interest in the company and position so pay lots of attention to writing it carefully. By following the five tips above, you will be able to write compelling follow-up letters that work in your favor.