I think personalizing a thank you letter/note is better than sending a simple note saying thank you for the interview. Since you're selling yourself, sort of like a commercial trying to get you to buy their product, you want your note to be memorable and yet applicable to the position to which you applied.

The interview I had today was by far the most memorable interview I have had in a very long time. It was for an executive position for the Corrections Department Training Academy. In spite of my legal background, I was not sure what to expect. Considering I live in a state where it is ranked 50th in the nation for job opportunities, well I felt the pressure to make a good impression.

I’m not sure if it were my hypnosis certification and training or exactly what it was that had the director of the training academy opening up to me. I was able to learn a great deal about his character and his career. I applied a combination of professionalism, a dash of earnest and forthrightness, with the appropriate amount of levity. It created a most dynamic interview atmosphere leaving my interviewer wondering if I had not hypnotized him.

I followed up with the following Thank You Letter:

Dear Mr. Smith (name changed to protect identity),

It is customary to send a thank you note after an interview. I know it would be more personable if I handwrote a note, but my great aunt was a handwriting expert and, I might add, very accurate. In fact, periodically she was asked to be a consultant for the Las Vegas, Nevada Police Department. It is one of those odd, yet profoundly memorable, random facts that just sort of stayed with me. The good news is that I’ve been tested in typing as high as 120 wpm.

William Shakespeare (Hamlet) said, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Brevity may be utterly lost on me because I have completely digressed from the subject at hand; sort of like the way I derailed the interview process. I do apologize for being such an unorthodox interviewee. Hopefully my personable nature did not hurt my chances for being selected for the position.

I am sure in your years of law enforcement that you were trained in various ways to read people. During the interview I hope you were able to ascertain that I’m not only a very earnest and forthright individual, but that I possess integrity and a high degree of morals and ethics.

Thank you for such an exquisite interview. I don’t know if one is supposed to enjoy an interview, but I did and I attribute it to the interviewer. Well done.

Best regards, Mara L. Segal