Thank you letter to PC, PD, and Interviewers

[microshar88]

Hi all,

I am pretty bad with being creative when it comes to these types of things. There is one program where I auditioned at last month and interviewed at 2 weeks ago. It's one of my top choices and I was planning on writing a generic thank you note/e-mail to the people I interacted with during the interview.

I know its late since it was about 2+ weeks ago but I was thinking about writing the following:

Dear XYZ,

Thank you for arranging everything for my interview and for the audition. I truly enjoyed everything and was glad to have the opportunity to interact with the staff and learn from the patients. I truly enjoyed my experience and I would love to attend your program as I feel it would provide me with an excellent foundation for my future goals.


Is this alright? I didn't want to sell myself too short by saying I'd give anything to attend, but I want to make sure it has enough information.

Thanks in advance.

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[Psych56]

For the PD thank you letters I have included why I would be a valuable asset to their program and what about their program fits my criteria. I usually ask the PD what he or she is looking for in an applicant during the interview then I include it in my thank you letter as to how I fit their criteria. Just my opinion! Good luck!

 

[microshar88]

For the PD thank you letters I have included why I would be a valuable asset to their program and what about their program fits my criteria. I usually ask the PD what he or she is looking for in an applicant during the interview then I include it in my thank you letter as to how I fit their criteria. Just my opinion! Good luck!

Thanks for the tips! Are you sending in e-mails? or are you going out and buying fancy cards and mailing them in?

I think the e-mail thing would be more eco-friendly lol

 

[Psych56]

I've been emailing. Then I don't have to worry if the "thank you" got lost in mail or something. I think it's easier for the interviewer to respond via email. And you can easily check who you sent them to.

 

[F0nzie]

Personally, I would not email. Some therapists send emails to my private practice when I send them referrals. Most of the time I do not feel like emailing them back because I am inundated with work. I feel like email takes away the magic of the correspondence.

The best correspondence IMO is a thank you card within 24 hours with no more than 1-2 lines. ie. Thank you for the opportunity to interview. Happy Holidays."

IMO the implicit message carries more weight than the actual message: 1. Time was taken to write a card 2. It was sent rather quickly. These both speak to your personality and work ethic. This is my method when PCPs and therapists that send me referrals and it works pretty well.

I feel letters and emails can easily cross the line from being impressive to flat out annoying. Have a nice presentation and write very little so it can be thrown away very quickly.

All that said, I did not do any thank you cards when I applied for residency but I did receive emails from PDs and responded to them.

 

[Psych56]

For the OP. Whether you do email or handwritten thank you cards probably won't have any bearing on how you are ranked IMO. So that's good

 

[NickNaylor]

I've been sending e-mails to the PD and my interviewers. They're pretty brief, and most of the time I receive responses, though most residents are pretty bad about writing back.

I agree with @F0nzie that your notes should be concise, personal, and not irritating. I interview for my med school, and most thank you messages are painfully convoluted, overly formal, and sound as if the writer picked up a thesaurus and used the biggest possible words they could find. Highlight why you're interested in the program, perhaps throw a line in there about something you and the interview discussed, and leave it at that. There's no need to make them a full multiparagraph letter. Nearly all of my messages are less than 100 words.

 

[Psych56]

I think being concise is something I could work on. I often times get too wordy. Always room for improvement!

 

[psychattending]

Emails/cards are not expected or needed. I would not worry about selling yourself short.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

Thank yous are nice but not necessary. It's been said for a long time by various PDs and other people that they don't make any difference. Never believed that until I was on a recruitment committee. They really don't make any difference.

Now a followup email sometime in Jan? That CAN make a difference provided it's specific to the program and/or personalized.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

After years of printing e-mails and filing thank you letters, we have stopped filing them as they mostly say the same things. We still file “thank yous” if they provide any pertinent data, but they seldom do. Even the ones that say “you are number one” are not to be trusted by our experience. The rest just sound like “you are my number 3 choice!” Really, even if we are your number one choice, that probably will not move you up the list much. Everyone likes to be loved, but the real truth will be clear enough on match day. There might be some value in wanting to match people who really want to be a part of the program, but that is what happens for the most part.

The system does create some cases of unreciprocated love because both parties are trying to get there best outcome. The good news is that there is quite a bit of love to go around in psychiatry. Just do your best and let it happen, there isn’t much you can do to change the outcomes anyway. After licking their wounds over not getting interviews, applicants may get snubbed by one or two programs. Programs also get snubbed by applicants turning down interview offers and then they get snubbed again on match day by 40 or 50 more people. There are just a lot of good choices out there and program directors with thin skin don’t last very long.

 

[notdeadyet]

Write a thank you if that's how you were raised. But there's no sense doing it for strategy's sake...