Interview Thank Yous: Tracking Down Email Addresses.
April 30, 2014 7:15 PM   Subscribe

Should I give up looking for email addresses of everyone (5) that interviewed me today and just send the thank-you to the one I have?

Very casual, small firm. Interview was very positive. I interviewed with 3 "bosses" and then interviewed with 2 of their assistants.

I want to email a thank-you; I think a hand-written thank you is a bit over the top and formal for the office, plus I want to get it out ASAP as they are hoping to make a quick decision.

Initially, I was going to email everyone individually, but, lo and behold, their individual email addresses are not on the website. Google searching turns up nothin'. I have the email address of one of the bosses who contacted me for an interview. I also have a general office email address (an "info@" type thing).

Questions:

1. If I email the one address I have, should I address it to that individual? Everyone? The bosses only?

1a. If I email it to the individual, how do I politely ask that the thank-you be passed around the (very, very) small office? Can I?

2. Should I move heaven and earth to find the other email addresses to send individual emails?

What's the etiquette when it's a small, casual firm and email addresses aren't easily found?

Thanks!
posted by tippy to Work & Money (12 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: ETA - "Passing it around the office" = everyone I interviewed with seeing it. I spoke at length with every employee in the firm today. It is very small.
posted by tippy at 7:17 PM on April 30, 2014


1a. "Thank you for (blah blah). Please extend my thanks to Name1, Name2, Name3, and Name4 as well. It was a pleasure meeting everyone."
posted by dayintoday at 7:19 PM on April 30, 2014 [8 favorites]


to:oneemailyouhave@example.com

Hi That One Guy

Thanks for ____________________(insert normal thank you text here). Please let ________ (name as many of the other people involved as possible) know how much I appreciated the opportunity.

I plan to follow up with you on ______

Tippy
posted by randomkeystrike at 7:20 PM on April 30, 2014


Best answer: 2nding dayintoday:

"Dear (Boss 1),

Thanks for your time today. Please extend my thanks to Boss 2, Boss 3, Person 1, and Person 2 as well. I enjoyed meeting everyone and learning more about NewCo. If you have any other questions about my experience or qualifications, please email or call me at any time.

Regards, Tippy."

Don't overthink the thank you. It might get passed along, it might not.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:20 PM on April 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


I apologize if this is obvious and you have already done this.

Just take a guess. There's generally only a few possibilities for email address formats at businesses - firstinitial|lastname@company.com, firstname|lastinitial@company.com, firstname.lastname@company.com, etc. If you get the email address wrong, it'll bounce back and you can guess something else. You get a hint from the boss's email that you do know.
posted by saeculorum at 7:41 PM on April 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I would find it strange if I received an email in that situation (no previous correspondence, and no business card exchange).

If you'd like to send a note, I suggest using the contact info you were given, and simply asking the recipient to please share the message with the other members of the team.
posted by grudgebgon at 7:57 PM on April 30, 2014


Yes, just send to the contact you have. When I have received an email thank you as part of group of interviewers (at one point the whole company interviewed new recruits), it has always seemed kind but strange to me. Including names as suggested above is more than sufficient.
posted by maryr at 8:30 PM on April 30, 2014


Just a note that email is definitely the way to go.

You could do one of two things. As other posters have mentioned, email the one person whose address you have, and ask them to extend their thanks to everyone else.

If you want to send individual emails to everyone and you know their names, it should not be hard to figure out their email addresses. If the person you know is Jane Smith and her email is jsmith@company.com, probably Bob Jones is bjones@, Sam Black is sblack@, etc. I have gotten thank you emails from candidates who didn't have my contact information but figured out my email address, and I didn't think it was weird.
posted by radioamy at 8:36 PM on April 30, 2014


I would stick with a hand-written card which they can pass around.
posted by Riverine at 1:00 PM on May 1, 2014


Take the e-mail address you do have, and try to figure out a pattern of e-mail addresses at that company. Take the names of the people you interviewed with and try to fit them to that format. Then send your thank you notes.
posted by tckma at 4:03 PM on May 1, 2014


Response by poster: I ended up sending something similar to what JoeZydeco suggested.

Must have worked; received an offer the next day and I started my new position the following Monday!
posted by tippy at 8:07 PM on May 6, 2014


High-five! Congrats!
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:34 PM on May 12, 2014


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