Career Management

The Great Thank You Note Debate

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

Oh, you didn’t know there was a debate, eh?

The Do’s:

“It’s the right thing to do,” said multiple sources including recruiters, employers, and career coaches. I agree, but here’s how to say THANKS the right way:

1. Always thank whomever for their time. Mention something personal, even if it is minor, that you learned about that person during the interview. If you are dropping the note to the secretary, mention how helpful or how pleasant they were during your wait.

2. Enclose a proposal or action plan regarding what you could do for the company. How you can SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM (whatever it was). You can mention accomplishments of yours that might be relevant to their situation. (Use your professional resume. There should be several listed from which you can choose!) This type of action plan makes you PROACTIVE. And shows how much you listened during the interview, how much you care about their company, and how much you’re dying to be a part of it.

3. If you interviewed several people, you may wish to enclose a second resume as a MEMORY JOGGER.

4. You want your letter to show your enthusiasm for the position/company, your compatibility with their team, how their goals match your goals, and your desire for the job! People have actually LOST positions because they didn’t ASK for the job. 

“It puts the candidate at the top of the call-if-(the)-No. 1-(candidate)-doesn’t-work list. In 5 years at Harvard, I saw this happen at least once a quarter,” said Susan P. Joyce, Editor/Webmaster, at Job-Hunt.org. She is “pro” thank you notes. 

“As a former hiring manager, I would be totally impressed with someone who wrote an appropriate thank you card,” said Jason Alba of JibberJobber.com. “It is above and beyond an e-mail, and shows a lot of thought. It is a gesture that would help me know that this person would take care of (internal and external) customers.” 

“In some situations, when considered with the interview, the thank you note had influence as to whether or not to extend an offer of employment,” said Steve Gallison, Professional Outplacement Assistance Center. 

As a former recruiter, I can tell you that Steve is right. I still remember getting a call from one employer saying, “Chris is fantastic! Do you know he FAXED over a hand-written thank you note right after his interview? WOW. When can he start?” Yes, Chris got the job. The employer had never received a thank you note from anyone in the past. The note made Chris stand out. Another client landed a job at Microsoft. The thank you note he sent got him over the top.

The Do NOT’s:

“Thank you notes are a waste of my time,” said one recruiter. “No one ever reads them.”

Not true. According to one executive recruiter, her candidate – who had aced the interview – lost the job offer. How? She sent a thank you note with spelling errors, typos, and bad grammar.

Of course thank you notes that just say, “Thanks for your time” are a waste of my time, said one HR director.

Instead, use this key paragraph provided by Don Orlando, MBA, of The McLean Group: “I want to do more than just thank you for your time. I was thinking about your problems and I have some ideas to help solve them. I know they must be tentative, but I’d like to get your reaction to them.” Check out No. 2 above for strategies to back up your claim.

Companies hire people who can solve their problems. Demonstrate how you can do so – and you’ve got a greater chance of getting in the door with a solid offer.

Am I a fan of thank-you notes? You bet.

Craigslist – a new way to get hired

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

Courtesy of Susan Joyce, Job-Hunt.org

I’ve run Job-Hunt.org since 1998, and I’ve been collecting job search success data off-line since since 2004. I keep a rolling total of what is working, although I haven’t published it on Job-Hunt. It helps me keep Job-Hunt focused on reality.

As you know from the other replies, most jobs are found off-line rather than online – more than 80% according to my data.

However, WHEN a job site is mentioned as the source of a job for “average” job seekers (professionals, entry level to mid-level, and lower level managers), the one mentioned is Craigslist! Literally, 20 to 1 over Monster. In the last 18 months,
CareerBuilder was not mentioned once, except as a source of spammy/sales messages. None of the niche sites was mentioned either. One of the people I interviewed landed a mid-level management job at a Verizon subsidiary (via Craigslist), but most of the jobs in the last 18 months have been below that level.

Craigslist is not perfect – it’s free for employers in all but 11 cities ($75 to post a job in SF, $25 in 10 other major metro areas, and free everywher else). That brings abuse from scammers and junk postings. Craigslist tries to limit the junk, but it’s definitely there. Communities can self-moderate, but some do a better job than others.

I have a guide to using Craigslist to find a job posted on Job-Hunt.

Milwaukee job growth outpaced Midwest cities

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

By Joel Dresang of JSOnline.com’s Business Watch

Except for Des Moines, Iowa, the four-county Milwaukee, WI area added jobs at a faster pace than the largest cities in nearby states, according to federal data released this morning.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the Milwaukee area’s 1.2% job growth from November 2006 to November 2007 was second only to metro Des Moines’ 2.5% among large metro areas in the region. Jobs in the Indianapolis area gained 1.1% in that period, followed by the Chicago area at 0.9%, the Twin Cities at 0.3%, metro Cleveland at 0.2% and the Detroit area, where the payroll count dropped by 1.7%.

Danville, Va., led the nation’s 369 metropolitan areas with a job growth rate of 7.4%.

To see the report, go to jobs.

Your life, your brand

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

Over the holidays I watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the umpteenth time along with varying versions of Charles Dickon’s “A Christmas Carol” (my new fave is the one featuring Vanessa Williams as a diva rock star).

Underlying theme? What’s your life about? What impact do you have (or want to have) on the world? What is your brand?!

So, with that in mind, I took a recent look at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s “Exit Stage Left” article – yep, it is about the celebs who died in 2007. A bit morbid to think about over the holidays, yes? NO.

Here’s why: When you read an obit, it captures the essence of the person. What impact they had on the world. At least the celeb ones do. And it boils it down into a very succinct package.

Here are some examples excerpted from the article:

Liz Claiborne: “Claiborne spent years discouraged by her former employer’s vision for working women. She wanted an alternative to the business suit and imagined a collection with mix-and-match skirts, tunics, vests, sweaters, shirt jackets, and culottes that could go from the office to a casual night out. She told an interviewer that becuase ‘every working woman wasn’t ending up in the boardroom or aspiring to that’ she would ‘dress the women who didn’t have to wear suits – the teachers, the doctors, the women working in Southern California or Florida, the women in the fashion industry itself,’ according to The Washington Post. Claiborne used personal savings to start Liz Claiborne in 1976 along with her husband… Liz Claiborne Inc. went public in 1981; four years later it was the first company founded by a woman to be listed in the Fortune 500.”

Is that cool or what? See how this obit captures the Claiborne brand? Her vision for the world? Her target market? Her brand attributes? And her accomplishments?

Marcel Marceau: “… Marceau spoke five languages but was at his most eloquent practicing l’art du silence. His grace, his sorrowful face, spoke of loss and triumph, of folly and truth, of his father dying at Auschwitz and of himself, rebellious and canny, spiriting Jewish children into Switzerland under the very eyes of the Gestapo. … In lesser hands, mime was an easy punch line, but no one who saw Marceau perform would say it was anything less than a beautiful expression of art.”

Wow, I had no idea, until this obit. Sure I had heard of Marcel Marceau as being the most famous mime in the world and yep, I saw that episode of Mork and Mindy back in the early ’80’s. But the impact during World War II?

Again, an amazing brand.

Tom Snyder: “While Milwaukee native Tom Snyder traved far from the town where his broadcasting career began, he never forgot the folks who launched him on the road to becoming a TV talk show host …. ” The obit lists his talk show credits and also provides a story about how Snyder contacted the Journal when his college professor died – to share what a positive impact this professor had on his career.

Again a clear brand: talk show host. Ah, but have you spotted the attributes? Certainly this man was a relator, a caring person who really connected with people. Great attributes for a talk show host.

So, for 2008, what contribution to want to make to the world? What’s your vision? Your brand? What steps can you take this year to make your vision for the world happen?