Emails and Phone Interviews

[wpff]

Alright. So, I know it's standard practice after APA interviews to send a brief note thanking the members of the department for the interview.

How about phone interviews?

[Hola]

I think it's a good idea to send a thank you for phone interviews, especially since they seem to be roughly equivalent to APA interviews in importance. Can't hurt, right?

[anonymous]

wpff,

Actually, I'm not convinced it's "standard practice" post-APA to thank one, or more, members of the committee with whom you've interviewed. Honestly, this is the first time I've heard the idea put forth.

And there could be a downside to it. Once the APA interviews are over and everyone goes home, the first question on every candidate's mind is: 'Where do things stand?' And SC members know this. With a few exceptions, any correspondence after the interviews which didn't address the elephant in the room would strike me as a bit contrived (one exception perhaps being if you thought the committee was interested in hiring you but was skeptical that you'd seriously consider taking the job).

I'm not saying you shouldn't send a thank you email, or what have you. I'm just saying there's lots of unsubstantiated, conflicting advice on APA etiquette and comparatively little consensus advice, and I'm not convinced post-APA thank yous fall in the latter category. (And I'd say the same about phone interviews).

[Anony]

I've never heard of anyone sending a thank-you note after an APA interview either. It seems to me like something you might get advised to do in an MBA program, but which philosophers would not care about, or worse, be a little suspicious of-- it sounds a bit needy to me at least. It's also a bit like sending out your application in a cute little binder. The SC will think you are some crossover from the business sector, and don't really get what academia is all about.

[anonymous]

I'm not sure it is "needy". I think it is common practice after every other kind of interview one might have. Why would philosophers be suspicious? It strikes me as a courteous thing to do. I wonder when expressing gratitude for an opportunity became problematic.

[docs]

Almost all of our interviewees sent some kind of thank you. We did not think it 'needy' or offensive. On the other hand, we did not think ill of those who did not send a thank you.

[braaaaains]

Oh man, you mean the Hello Kitty binders were a mistake?

[Randy]

Somewhere I got the idea that you shouldn't send thank you notes after APA interviews. For the life of me, though, I can't remember where. But the point was roughly that such notes were transparent, pushy, even desperate attempts to get some sort of sense of where you stood from the SC, or, at least, that such notes would appear that way to SC members. And, in truth, many SC's are horrible at giving the bad news, and so I'm sure would prefer it if most of us would go away. (One SC member wrote to me after an APA interview and said this: "We will contact people for on-campus interviews in about a month. If you don't hear from us, well, I trust you will understand what that means." What a wuss -- can't you even say it?)

But since wpff thought this was standard practice, I've asked a couple of people I trust. Not surprisingly, I got mixed responses. Some were ok with it, and had always done it themselves, and others found it mildly annoying. (They were thinking something along the lines of, "we said we'd get back to them when we had something to tell them, so leave us alone until then.")

[dubious]

Here is my two-bit advice: send a thank-you email a day after the interview. Since they know that you know that they have probably not made any decisions yet, they are more likely to take your email as a "thank-you" and not as a "can you tell me information about my status?" If you wait weeks, then, well, they'll most likely take the latter interpretation.

None of this is a science, but that is what I think.

[guest]

dubious is right that probably the best time to send a note, if at all, is soon after the interview. I should say though that in my experience (on search committees) those sorts of notes don't make any difference to our decisions.

[docs]

I'm inclined to agree with both 'Dubious' and 'Guest [guest]': a nice e-mail 'thanks' right after the interviews is taken as nothing more than that, and certainly is unlikely to either win one the job or cost one anything.

We have gotten some useful follow-up emails from people, and that's fine, too. If something comes up, or one wants to add to what was said in the interview, I really do not think that is an imposition. As far as I can tell, ours is the only profession in which interviewees are expected to go away and be quiet until contacted.

I think this could only be a problem if everyone starts sending out emails which require a response. But, even then, most SCs cannot interview all that many people at the APA, so how much of a burden can it be on us to just send a quick 'reply' message?

And, by the way, Randy writes, "One SC member wrote to me after an APA interview and said this: 'We will contact people for on-campus interviews in about a month. If you don't hear from us, well, I trust you will understand what that means.'"

Personally, I think that is a) rude, b) unkind, and c) a lot worse than 'wussy.'

[docs]

P.S. : "BRAAAAAINS" - did I get the number of 'As' right?

Other Scs got Hello Kitty binders? I'm so disappointed. ;D

[wpff]

Thanks all. I appreciate the feedback.