One piece of career advice that’s stood the test of time is to write a thank you note to anyone you interview with for a job. Doing so can help give you an edge to stand out from other applicants, experts say.
For one woman, a thank you note landed her a gig working with a CEO right after college, and it even helped shape her career.
Ashley Graef was a senior in college working an internship where she interviewed people for a fashion publication. During one assignment, she connected with the CEO of a tech company.
She hand-wrote him a thank you note after their meeting, expressing her gratitude for his time. Graef tells CNBC Make It that he was taken by the gesture, noting that “nobody ever does this anymore.”
Graef says the CEO offered her a gig to ghostwrite his Medium blog posts, where he’d share updates about his business and thought leadership on his industry.
She earned between $150 to $200 per post, about once or twice a month, she says, for a few years after college.
Sending a handwritten thank you note is “a lost art,” Graef says, but she was taught to do so when she was a kid. “I tell people I’ve gotten jobs that way.”
Ashley Graef says a CEO took notice when she sent him a handwritten thank you note and offered her a writing job with him.
Courtesy of subject
It doesn’t take much time or effort to send a thoughtful thank you after a job interview, though “surprisingly few” applicants do it these days, executive recruiter Jeff Hyman previously told Make It.
A good note doesn’t have to be long but should:
- Thank your interviewer for their time
- Reiterate your interest in the role
- Mention a detail you learned about them or their experience
- Remind them why you’re the right candidate for the job
Graef, now 29, also recommends personalizing your note. “You don’t have to write a thesis, but point out a moment or two that are specific to your interaction with whomever is receiving the note,” she says.
Graef says she writes thank you notes for “everything”: if she makes a new connection, after a job interview and even if she gets a job rejection. She prefers to send a handwritten note — if time is of the essence, she’ll send an email right after the interaction but follow up with a physical card to arrive a day or two later.
Graef went into copywriting after college. In early 2024, she was laid off from her job as a Macy’s copywriter and has since focused on building her own business doing freelance copywriting, editing and proofreading for companies.
Late last year, she decided to revisit her earlier efforts to ghostwrite for CEOs and other executives, especially as they build their brands on LinkedIn.
Graef landed a full-time contract job in January and spends 10 to 15 hours per week on her own writing business. Working in her new quality assurance job doesn’t feel as rewarding as writing for clients, but she hopes to one day scale her business to replace her income and eventually quit the corporate world.
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