Thank You Letters: Email or Handwritten

[phillymed123]

What is everyone doing this year as far as "thank you letters" post interview?

email or hand written letters?

Thanks

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[coffeebeanjenn]

I think I'm going to do hand-written. I originally was going to do email, but I've had multiple docs/advisors/aPDs tell me they appreciate the hand-written notes.

 

[TeaKae]

Really, we're supposed to send thank yous after we interview?! Isn't dropping hundreds of dollars on travel, accomodations, and transportation enough to show our genuine interest?

 

[peppy]

I did handwritten notes with the logic that it was more traditional and therefore more professional...however in hindsight I actually think doing email ones might be better because it's easier for them to reply to an email than a handwritten note (not that you should expect them all to reply)

 

[phillymed123]

i was leaning towards email as well

 

[QuacksterVu]

What is everyone doing this year as far as "thank you letters" post interview?

email or hand written letters?

Thanks

I initially thought about Thank You cards/handwritten letters since it is a nice personal touch. Like Peppy mentioned, emails are definitely easier to respond to. Also, gauge how "techie" the people are at the program.

The interviewers at one program gave me their email addresses and we had even briefly talked about computers and other tech during my sessions. Seems like they would understand and appreciate emails instead. Other programs may prefer the traditional handwritten note.

I would do it on a case-by-case basis.

 

[KnuxNole]

Would it be cheesy/inappropriate to buy a hallmark Thank you card with an added personal message on the inside?

Or do you guys take a blank sheet of paper and write a note?

 

[QuacksterVu]

Would it be cheesy/inappropriate to buy a hallmark Thank you card with an added personal message on the inside?

Or do you guys take a blank sheet of paper and write a note?

Not cheesy or inappropriate (in my opinion). I got a pack of 20 white, minimalistic ThankYou cards from Amazon. Worked perfectly fine with my letter writers (one of which was a former program director, who said it was fine as well). It's all about the contents.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Really, we're supposed to send thank yous after we interview?! Isn't dropping hundreds of dollars on travel, accomodations, and transportation enough to show our genuine interest?

<sigh>

Every year we go through this.

We recognize that you have spent a lot of money to come to your interviews. We have also spent money and time in arranging these things and appreciate the opportunity to show our program to you.

The point is not to send the thank you letter as a pawn to get you something/show your interest.

The point of a thank you letter is simply that it is considered proper social and business etiquette to do so when someone has gone to some trouble in inviting and entertaining you - whether it be a party or a job interview.

I understand that these social graces have been somewhat lost over recent decades, but a cursory review of several business schools, law schools and Emily Post all still recommend thank you letters.

 

[pedsFMG]

I understand that these social graces have been somewhat lost over recent decades, but a cursory review of several business schools, law schools and Emily Post all still recommend thank you letters.

Do you think it matters whether thank you letters come through snail mail or email?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

<sigh>

Every year we go through this.

We recognize that you have spent a lot of money to come to your interviews. We have also spent money and time in arranging these things and appreciate the opportunity to show our program to you.

The point is not to send the thank you letter as a pawn to get you something/show your interest.

The point of a thank you letter is simply that it is considered proper social and business etiquette to do so when someone has gone to some trouble in inviting and entertaining you - whether it be a party or a job interview.

I understand that these social graces have been somewhat lost over recent decades, but a cursory review of several business schools, law schools and Emily Post all still recommend thank you letters.

Happy to agree with all of this...

.... and point out that it's very unlikely to affect ranking or anything else.

The point is, send a thank you note if you want to, because you think it's "the right thing to do".

Personally, I could care less. My Program Admin loves getting them. Email is fine by me. She likes handwritten cards.

Almost no one ever has anything change because of it. I can think of 2 people in the last few years who were borderline to begin with (i.e. we were most likely not going to rank them), whose thank you notes were so insane it pushed them off the list -- but again, we were almost certainly not going to rank them anyway.

This is not something to stress over.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Do you think it matters whether thank you letters come through snail mail or email?

Nope. A handwritten card is nice because I know it requires more effort than an email (and as a girl, I like those things), but as aPD notes, it won't affect your ranking either way, and I am appreciate of *any* effort taken.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I can think of 2 people in the last few years who were borderline to begin with (i.e. we were most likely not going to rank them), whose thank you notes were so insane it pushed them off the list -- but again, we were almost certainly not going to rank them anyway.

I'm waiting for the story...

 

[TeaKae]

@ Winged Scapula -- Sorry, but I don't read these threads every year; just looking now as they begin to apply to me!

I wasn't being sarcastic in my post...I honestly had no idea it was "proper etiquette" to send thank yous to the places you interviewed. It's a no-brainer to send them to my letter writers, or people who give me gifts, but the interview one was just less obvious to me.

My "social graces" might be a little underdeveloped. I grew up in a community and socioeconomic stratus where things like classiness were not highly emphasized. I'm still a bit rough around the edges I guess. I'm not totally ignorant, but still learning some of the finer points of etiquette and professionalism. That, or I tend to question the sincerity/motives of some of my peers, and saw the gesture as just "part of the game" or a suck-up measure. Maybe a bit of both?

Now that I'm savvy from reading this, I suppose I can see the point. Thank you for explaining the reasoning behind it.

 

[Winged Scapula]

@ Winged Scapula -- Sorry, but I don't read these threads every year; just looking now as they begin to apply to me!

I wasn't being sarcastic in my post...I honestly had no idea it was "proper etiquette" to send thank yous to the places you interviewed. It's a no-brainer to send them to my letter writers, or people who give me gifts, but the interview one was just less obvious to me.

My "social graces" might be a little underdeveloped. I grew up in a community and socioeconomic stratus where things like classiness were not highly emphasized. I'm still a bit rough around the edges I guess. I'm not totally ignorant, but still learning some of the finer points of etiquette and professionalism. That, or I tend to question the sincerity/motives of some of my peers, and saw the gesture as just "part of the game" or a suck-up measure. Maybe a bit of both?

Now that I'm savvy from reading this, I suppose I can see the point. Thank you for explaining the reasoning behind it.

Thank you for your graceful answer to my rather graceless post.

Every year it seems that there are arguments from SDN users who complain about such social institutions and persist, claiming the only reason for thank you notes and the like are to gain themselves something, rather than being something that a polite society does. Forgive me for thinking you were of the same ilk.

 

[TeaKae]

It's all good...internet post leave oodles of room for interpretation.

 

[handwriting]

So, writing an email to the PC thanking everyone isn't good enough, I'm guessing.

If a person was interviewed by 6 separate interviewers, he's supposed to send 6 thank you cards via snail mail with a unique thank you message in each?

 

[blue2000]

So, writing an email to the PC thanking everyone isn't good enough, I'm guessing.

If a person was interviewed by 6 separate interviewers, he's supposed to send 6 thank you cards via snail mail with a unique thank you message in each?

Yes. Three lines:

Thank you so much for interviewing me today. It was very interesting to hear more about (topic you discussed during interview). I really enjoyed my day a your program and appreciate the time you took with me.

Sincerely,
X

If you have more to say, say it. But it really doesn't have to be anymore complicated than that. When I was interviewing, I took a box of thank you notes in my suitcase, and wrote them in the hotel room that night. Stamped them, dropped them off at hotel front desk while checking out and never thought of them again. If you don't know the address of the physician, address them in care of the program coordinator. He or she will be happy to distribute. I'd say that you should write one to the PD and each person who interviewed you. It also would probably score points with the PC to write him or her one, especially if they went out of their way to assist you in anyway.

 

[handwriting]

Yes. Three lines:

Thank you so much for interviewing me today. It was very interesting to hear more about (topic you discussed during interview). I really enjoyed my day a your program and appreciate the time you took with me.

Sincerely,
X

If you have more to say, say it. But it really doesn't have to be anymore complicated than that. When I was interviewing, I took a box of thank you notes in my suitcase, and wrote them in the hotel room that night. Stamped them, dropped them off at hotel front desk while checking out and never thought of them again. If you don't know the address of the physician, address them in care of the program coordinator. He or she will be happy to distribute. I'd say that you should write one to the PD and each person who interviewed you. It also would probably score points with the PC to write him or her one, especially if they went out of their way to assist you in anyway.

Thanks for the reply.

I think I'll take your advice and send out the thank you cards. I really do remember each interviewer, and the interviews themselves were very unique. I'd love to write them and thank them...I just hope they don't think the effort is contrived.

Also, I hope they won't mind getting the thank you cards up to a week after the interview.

 

[twright]

So, writing an email to the PC thanking everyone isn't good enough, I'm guessing.

If a person was interviewed by 6 separate interviewers, he's supposed to send 6 thank you cards via snail mail with a unique thank you message in each?

I think I have a different perspective on this.

At my program, any and all correspondence you sent would get scanned and placed in the folder. At the beginning of the weekly residency selection committee meeting, the program director would chime in with updates, e.g. "I had a really nice talk with XYZ who is in our clear match pile, and she seemed pretty interested" "here's some correspondence I got from XYZ, PQR, TUV, standard thank you notes if anyone wants to see them".

If you are going to send any correspondence, I would say the following:

1. You should send a thank you note in response to a particularly meaningful conversation you had with an interviewer. For example, she may have suggested that you apply to a program that you hadn't thought about, or she may have arranged for you to have an additional interview on-the-fly with a faculty member whose research interests align with yours, etc. Your thank you note should reference this meaningful conversation: "Thank you for helping to arrange that interview with Dr. Nemeroff. I'm sure the program coordinator and he were both very busy, and I very much appreciate the time."

2. Before you finish an interview in which you had a particularly meaningful conversation, you should ask about modes of correspondence: "Thank you very much for your time. Our conversation about XYZ (e.g., dopamine transporter XYZ research, teaching style for PQR therapy) gave me a lot of interesting stuff to think about. Would you mind if I contacted you later for more information about this?" Your interviewer will either say (a) "Sure, happy to, just contact my secretary/program coordinator", or (b) "Yes, here's my card with my email, please call or email any time".

Unless your interviewer was Charlie Nemeroff or some other insanely busy person, then receiving response A means that you should send a handwritten thank you note. It will get scanned and put in your file. If you get response B, then by all means email a thank you note to your interviewer (i.e., you do not need to also send a written thank you card).

3. You need to be socially aware enough to know whether or not you had a "particularly meaningful conversation" with an interviewer. If I get correspondence that is inconsistent with my interview experience (e.g., I didn't think we connected, or I didn't think it was meaningful at all, but she writes "thank you so much for the life changing interview experience", etc) then she gets docked a few points in my book.

4. Corollary to the above observations is that you do not need to send thank-you correspondence to each of your interviewers. (Again, if you happened to have particularly meaningful conversations with each one of them, then by all means send personalized cards or emails to each one of them. But there are always off interviewers and off interviews. So I would expect a situation like this to be rare unless you were a highly sought after candidate and each interviewer was very interested in you.)

 

[m1345]

Happy to agree with all of this...

.... and point out that it's very unlikely to affect ranking or anything else.

The point is, send a thank you note if you want to, because you think it's "the right thing to do".

Personally, I could care less. My Program Admin loves getting them. Email is fine by me. She likes handwritten cards.

Almost no one ever has anything change because of it. I can think of 2 people in the last few years who were borderline to begin with (i.e. we were most likely not going to rank them), whose thank you notes were so insane it pushed them off the list -- but again, we were almost certainly not going to rank them anyway.

This is not something to stress over.

I'm also eagerly awaiting the story. "Insane"???

 

[C5toC9]

Do emails get put into the folder as well or only handwritten notes?

 

[twright]

Do emails get put into the folder as well or only handwritten notes?

At our program, emails were printed out and placed into the folder.

 

[Dral]

I hand-wrote tons of TYs and it didn't make a difference. If you're merely doing it with the hopes it will give you better chances, I'd say just skip it. If you want to do it as a true gesture of thanks, then do it the 'write' way.

See what I did there?

 

[QuacksterVu]

I hand-wrote tons of TYs and it didn't make a difference. If you're merely doing it with the hopes it will give you better chances, I'd say just skip it. If you want to do it as a true gesture of thanks, then do it the 'write' way.

See what I did there?

 

[Ronin786]

I think I have a different perspective on this.

At my program, any and all correspondence you sent would get scanned and placed in the folder. At the beginning of the weekly residency selection committee meeting, the program director would chime in with updates, e.g. "I had a really nice talk with XYZ who is in our clear match pile, and she seemed pretty interested" "here's some correspondence I got from XYZ, PQR, TUV, standard thank you notes if anyone wants to see them".

If you are going to send any correspondence, I would say the following:

1. You should send a thank you note in response to a particularly meaningful conversation you had with an interviewer. For example, she may have suggested that you apply to a program that you hadn't thought about, or she may have arranged for you to have an additional interview on-the-fly with a faculty member whose research interests align with yours, etc. Your thank you note should reference this meaningful conversation: "Thank you for helping to arrange that interview with Dr. Nemeroff. I'm sure the program coordinator and he were both very busy, and I very much appreciate the time."

2. Before you finish an interview in which you had a particularly meaningful conversation, you should ask about modes of correspondence: "Thank you very much for your time. Our conversation about XYZ (e.g., dopamine transporter XYZ research, teaching style for PQR therapy) gave me a lot of interesting stuff to think about. Would you mind if I contacted you later for more information about this?" Your interviewer will either say (a) "Sure, happy to, just contact my secretary/program coordinator", or (b) "Yes, here's my card with my email, please call or email any time".

Unless your interviewer was Charlie Nemeroff or some other insanely busy person, then receiving response A means that you should send a handwritten thank you note. It will get scanned and put in your file. If you get response B, then by all means email a thank you note to your interviewer (i.e., you do not need to also send a written thank you card).

3. You need to be socially aware enough to know whether or not you had a "particularly meaningful conversation" with an interviewer. If I get correspondence that is inconsistent with my interview experience (e.g., I didn't think we connected, or I didn't think it was meaningful at all, but she writes "thank you so much for the life changing interview experience", etc) then she gets docked a few points in my book.

4. Corollary to the above observations is that you do not need to send thank-you correspondence to each of your interviewers. (Again, if you happened to have particularly meaningful conversations with each one of them, then by all means send personalized cards or emails to each one of them. But there are always off interviewers and off interviews. So I would expect a situation like this to be rare unless you were a highly sought after candidate and each interviewer was very interested in you.)

Do interviews really get that technical? Talking about research in the field or dopamine transporters seems like something too complicated for an interview with someone that really knows nothing about that particular specialty yet.

 

[gutonc]

Do interviews really get that technical? Talking about research in the field or dopamine transporters seems like something too complicated for an interview with someone that really knows nothing about that particular specialty yet.

If you put it on your CV or bring it up in the interview, it's fair game. So if you wrote in ERAS that you did research on dopamine transporters, I'm going to ask you about dopamine transporters. OTOH, if you wrote that you like to play the violin, I'm going to ask you about that.

 

[QuacksterVu]

If you put it on your CV or bring it up in the interview, it's fair game. So if you wrote in ERAS that you did research on dopamine transporters, I'm going to ask you about dopamine transporters. OTOH, if you wrote that you like to play the violin, I'm going to ask you about that.

Agreed. I definitely got asked about my research and other extracurricular activities. The Chair at one of the programs happened to do similar research, so naturally he asked me detailed questions about it. Another faculty member was big on photography so we ended talking about lens and subjects.

 

[darksideone]

Email, especially if the PD or faculty are younger. That is the current method of communication. They get swamped with so much other junk mail that gets piled up and never looked at. Not saying they won't read your card, but many times it can get lost amongst everything else. Email is quick and straight to the point. Many times they will just shoot back a reply stating how much they enjoyed getting to know you better and hope that you seriously consider ranking them highly. Sometimes you might get no response. But email has less of a risk not getting to them (just Bcc yourself to the email) vs. USPS.

Now if the person interviewed you is older, then a handwritten note might be better.

But from what attendings/mentors/PD's have told me, ultimately it doesn't matter which method you use, but many of them prefer email.

 

[diagonal]

Pretty hilarious that everyone on here says to be genuine, then gives the advice that we should write a thank you letter saying "hey, can't wait to grab a coffee and discuss transmitters some more with you one day."

What a gross process.

 

[shan564]

Pretty hilarious that everyone on here says to be genuine, then gives the advice that we should write a thank you letter saying "hey, can't wait to grab a coffee and discuss transmitters some more with you one day."

What a gross process.

I can't speak for other people, but when I say something like that, I am being genuine. Many of us actually like grabbing coffee and discussing transmitters with a senior staff member.

Before you resort to condescension, maybe you should consider the fact that not everybody sees things the same way that you do.

 

[EMmotherhen]

Having manners is hardly gross. The program coordinator went to the trouble to provide you with a nice dinner, breakfast, and lunch. The Chair, the PD, Asst PD and other faculty gave up their day off to sit and interview you. The residents gave up their night off to attend the dinner. Some then gave up a morning off to show you around campus and answer questions. Were you picked up at the hotel and given a ride to the restaurant or to the airport? All of these things deserve your gratitude. I personally don't care if you write me (or email me) a note. But you should still feel thankful for what was done for you and at least shake hands and make sure you say a kind word to the staff.

 

[HarveyCushing]

I am going with the email method. Was what was recommended to me by several faculty members and PD's as the best method to drop a few lines thanking them for the chance to interview at their program and how much you enjoyed it.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Email, especially if the PD or faculty are younger. That is the current method of communication. They get swamped with so much other junk mail that gets piled up and never looked at. Not saying they won't read your card, but many times it can get lost amongst everything else. Email is quick and straight to the point. Many times they will just shoot back a reply stating how much they enjoyed getting to know you better and hope that you seriously consider ranking them highly. Sometimes you might get no response. But email has less of a risk not getting to them (just Bcc yourself to the email) vs. USPS.

Now if the person interviewed you is older, then a handwritten note might be better.

But from what attendings/mentors/PD's have told me, ultimately it doesn't matter which method you use, but many of them prefer email.

What's older?

It really doesn't matter but I would disagree with your reasonings: if your faculty/PD has good office staff, they shouldn't have junk mail piled up on their desk, making it hard to find your note. My office staff goes through my mail and sorts things out for me, removing the junk, ads, etc.

OTOH, I get dozens of email per day and its easy to overlook something or see it on my phone but be too busy to respond, and then I forget about it.

A nice hand addressed card is much more noticeable to *me* (but then I'm probably considered old to you ) and much less likely to get lost. Email is easier for me to respond (if we choose to response at all).

 

[tranzformer]

Email. /thread.

If email is good enough for programs to send out interview invites/rejections/follow up/"we will rank you highly" then it is good enough for an applicant to send an email thanking them for the interview.

This is 2012. Not the early 1990s.

 

[DB2013EM]

I feel like both have its perks, and clearly Winged Scapula said *any* thank you is appropriate. Do what makes you feel most comfortable.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I feel like both have its perks, and clearly Winged Scapula said *any* thank you is appropriate. Do what makes you feel most comfortable.

And there you have it.

 

[thecampuslegend]

What about thanking them in person? You know....at the end of the interview when you are face to face. The program was kind enough to send you an invite and you were kind enough to fly out, hotel it up, rental car to the hospital and fly back.....a thank you in person seems more GENUINE.

 

[thecampuslegend]

What about thanking them in person? You know....at the end of the interview when you are face to face. The program was kind enough to send you an invite and you were kind enough to fly out, hotel it up, rental car to the hospital and fly back.....a thank you in person seems more GENUINE.

oh and with that being said, i did leave thank you cards with the secretary at the end of the interview day for her to disseminate.

 

[Winged Scapula]

What about thanking them in person? You know....at the end of the interview when you are face to face. The program was kind enough to send you an invite and you were kind enough to fly out, hotel it up, rental car to the hospital and fly back.....a thank you in person seems more GENUINE.

I think it goes without saying that you thank them in person anyway.

Its analogous to being invited to party. You thank the host when you are there, and then followup with a thank you note or gift. I realize that this social art has been lost, but it is the traditional expected response.

 

[darksideone]

Its analogous to being invited to party. You thank the host when you are there, and then followup with a thank you note or gift. I realize that this social art has been lost, but it is the traditional expected response.

Don't you tend to bring the gift when invited to the party? Like a bottle of wine, a gift basket, some flowers...etc.?

 

[woeiru]

Don't you tend to bring the gift when invited to the party? Like a bottle of wine, a gift basket, some flowers...etc.?

Some wine on interview day could make it a lot more fun...

 

[Winged Scapula]

Don't you tend to bring the gift when invited to the party? Like a bottle of wine, a gift basket, some flowers...etc.?

If I know the host very well and what they would like.

However, there are some that say a gift later is more appropriate especially if food or wine related (as the host might feel obligated to serve what you've brought even if it isn't to their liking).

But I agree that bringing it to the party is more common in most instances.

What I like to do is to bring something to the party and then send a little something later (perhaps a framed picture from the event). This would be for "major" parties (ie, 40th birthday, Engagement etc) not a routine Saturday come over for beer and pizza party.

 

[thierryhenry]

In my experience I wrote a very personal thank you to an attending who interviewed me via Email. He replied in a few days with a very personal and well thought out note so I thought that was nice.

If I sent a postcard in the mail I bought he would ever respond via post in the same way

So food for thought

 

[DrAwsome]

In my experience I wrote a very personal thank you to an attending who interviewed me via Email. He replied in a few days with a very personal and well thought out note so I thought that was nice.

If I sent a postcard in the mail I bought he would ever respond via post in the same way

So food for thought

Definitely agree with email. I think handwritten notes can be misplaced, not received by the intended party, etc. You know the recipient received an email for sure, and they can reply if they want to. But overall, don't think it makes a difference ultimately, even though everyone every year stresses over this.

 

[septoplasty]

Some wine on interview day could make it a lot more fun...

Knew someone would jump on that one lol.

 

[member77077]

I have been emailing thank yous........and today I actually got a handwritten note from a PD. I thought that was really unusual and was pleasantly surprised. I did email this particular PD after my IV, and he did not respond to my email, although I don't know if the note was a response or if he just does this anyway. Either way, it was a nice touch.

 

[dude1344]

Is everyone sending a separate email to each person they interviewed with? I've heard differing opinions, as in if you send a thank you to each interviewer, all those emails, which are probably pretty similar in content, will all be attached to your eras file. When reviewing your app they'll be able to see that you sent similar emails to each interviewer, which could possibly take away from how genuine the thank yous are.

Am I over thinking things? How is everyone dealing with this?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

You are overthinking this

 

[member77077]

So far I've been emailing thank yous to everybody I interviewed with. (THus far, a max of 3 people.) However, I really try to point out something unique to our conversation with each person (and a couple of times this has been difficult). If it all of my emails go into one folder, even if they're all similar, then I figure the worst it says about me is that I took the time to thank everybody.