Post-Interview Etiquette (Internship+)

[PsyDaVinci]

Question about interviews:
When individually interviewing with multiple (e.g., 5) psychologists, meeting with current trainees, and meeting the psychology chief, would you recommend writing thank you notes to all of them (i.e., especially the psychology faculty)? If so, could the letters being really similar? Or would you recommend them to be more individualized?

Thanks!!

People have discussed this earlier in this thread. Consensus was don't bother. Many sites explicitly tell you not to bother. It's not going to sway things one way or the other. If you do want to write them, write brief appreciative notes.

Did not want to hijack the interview thread with this...

I'm curious about other perspectives on this. I am a strong believer in gratitude and all, so I was surprised to see that bit about the consensus to say no. I'd be lying if I said there was no strategic aspect of this, I like to believe that I would match for merit but I believe that this is a reflection of one's personality as much as one's own interview behavior. That being said, even for a site I didn't like I would still show my appreciation for inviting me out.

I suppose my specific question is this: what do you think would be better received: writing shortly after the interview or waiting until later in the interview process? My interviews have already started and are spread out for the next month. I wonder if there's any difference between acknowledging soon after the interview or waiting until later in the process. Any thoughts or experiential input are welcome and invited. Thanks!

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[WisNeuro]

Seriously, does not factor into the equation at anywhere that I have been. Unless there is a specific question, the e-mail just gets deleted or responded to with some copy paste form letter that we have. If anything, it's more of a hassle than a benefit. I get dozens of e-mails a day, this is just another pointless thing I have to occupy my time with. I still have yet to hear anyone mention a thank you e-mail in my 5+ years of being part of an admissions committee member.

 

[str63]

Seriously, does not factor into the equation at anywhere that I have been. Unless there is a specific question, the e-mail just gets deleted or responded to with some copy paste form letter that we have. If anything, it's more of a hassle than a benefit. I get dozens of e-mails a day, this is just another pointless thing I have to occupy my time with. I still have yet to hear anyone mention a thank you e-mail in my 5+ years of being part of an admissions committee member.

I completely agree with this. We are one of the sites that tells applicants to NOT send thank yous. We know this is a stressful time for applicants and the time and energy should be put into preparing for interviews and ranking considerations. I actually don't like when I get thank yous because I feel obligated to respond, which can be very time consuming. I completely don't mind when applicants have additional questions and I will absolutely answer them, but otherwise, I prefer not to receive thank you emails. It has never factored into our ranking, even before we told people not to send them. In fact, I'd bet nobody would even remember who sent them!

 

[PsychPhDone]

Did not want to hijack the interview thread with this...

I'm curious about other perspectives on this. I am a strong believer in gratitude and all, so I was surprised to see that bit about the consensus to say no. I'd be lying if I said there was no strategic aspect of this, I like to believe that I would match for merit but I believe that this is a reflection of one's personality as much as one's own interview behavior. That being said, even for a site I didn't like I would still show my appreciation for inviting me out.

I suppose my specific question is this: what do you think would be better received: writing shortly after the interview or waiting until later in the interview process? My interviews have already started and are spread out for the next month. I wonder if there's any difference between acknowledging soon after the interview or waiting until later in the process. Any thoughts or experiential input are welcome and invited. Thanks!

I don't mind getting thank yous but it (or lack thereof) doesn't factor into ranking for me AT ALL. Definitely do not send one if they say not to. If nothing is said, a short email is ok, in my opinion, if that's values-consistent for you. But I don't think it really matters.

 

[PsyDaVinci]

Thank you all for the feedback. I do continue to find it rather surprising that this is something that would be actively discouraged. When I've been involved in hiring processes prior to returning for my PhD, I have certainly appreciated when a job candidate took the time to acknowledge that we gave him/her an opportunity to see our operations and take time out of our scheduled daily work; the flip side is that some people came of as being ass-kissers (pardon the language) depending on how they presented it. That being said, I'm cognizant of the differences between job interviews and internship interviews and one of my biggest apprehensions in this process is that I haven't felt like I have a solid perspective on the mindset of internship training professionals.

I am less concerned about it helping my rankings and more concerned about it hurting, but as you said it apparently factors in none to rankings so that's somewhat relieving. I would find it odd to be actively discouraged, but I suppose that kind of attitude would factor into MY rankings of a site; if I have to spend a year with these people I believe it would be an issue if I found myself dealing with people who might hold notably different values.

 

[WisNeuro]

If you would lower the rankings of sites purely because they asked you to please not send thank you letters/e-mails, more power to you, but that's a bit melodramatic.

 

[PsyDaVinci]

Funny, I would almost say the same thing about discouraging a thank you for the reasons mentioned here. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

 

[PsychPhDone]

There are many reasons to discourage thank yous that are perfectly reasonable. I'm going to pretend I'm a TD for a moment to illustrate. Some sites interview a LOT of applicants. If I get 100 thank you emails, that's a lot to wade through. I'm then going to reply to all of them because I'm not going to want the applicant to feel stressed if I don't. Meanwhile, only a few of those emails are going to contain questions for me, and that will slow me down in answering those in plenty of time for the applicants to consider my answer when they rank. On top of these emails, I'm working on wrangling rankings from my own staff, and running the internship/supervising interns/seeing my own patients. Another reason to discourage thank yous is to avoid any emails that could be interpreted as match-violating on either side. Finally, I think it's respectful of the applicant's time. I had 10+ interviews from coast to coast. I'd I were a TD, I'd want my applicants to know that they shouldn't feel pressured to send emails unless they had questions I could answer. It's a lot of travel and stress, and why make it more stressful?

So while I personally don't care if I receive a thank you, and I, too, found it weird that some sites actively discouraged it when I was interviewing on the applicant side, i see it as a reasonable statement to be made now that I'm a few years on the "other side".

 

[WisNeuro]

So while I personally don't care if I receive a thank you, and I, too, found it weird that some sites actively discouraged it when I was interviewing on the applicant side, i see it as a reasonable statement to be made now that I'm a few years on the "other side".

I know, it's amazing what perspective and sound judgment can do, right?

 

[str63]

Funny, I would almost say the same thing about discouraging a thank you for the reasons mentioned here. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

We have over 100 applicants that we interview. As a TD, I do not want to read and respond to over 100 people thanking me. Applicants can use that time for better purposes, as can I. It saves everyone stress and time, which I see as helpful for all during this time of the year. As you state, it is much different than a typical job interview because most jobs are not interviewing this many people all at the same time.

 

[PsychPhDone]

I know, it's amazing what perspective and sound judgment can do, right?

I fear that if I make too many statements based in perspective and sound judgment, I may be nominated to become TD. Sending good vibes to all the new TDs out there.