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Context: I am currently a college student in my senior year. I have completed several internships, and am currently interviewing for full time roles.

Yesterday I completed super day (final round) interviews with two different companies (henceforth A and B). In both instances, I was provided with an interview schedule and the names of the people whom I would be speaking with. I was not provided with email addresses or contact information.

To provide a bit more context, my HR contact from company A reached out to let me know that I should expect to hear back about their decision within two weeks. Company B told me that they expect to make a decision within two business days. At this point I would strongly prefer working at company A.

Both A and B are large, well-known corporations, and in both cases I am interviewing for very competitive consulting / analyst rotation programs.

It is my understanding that it is always proper etiquette to send thank you notes to one's interviewers after an interview. My question: would it be perceived as poor etiquette if I looked up their email addresses to send thank you notes, when this information was not provided to me in the first place? Or would it be more damaging if I did not send a thank you note at all?

In both cases, my interviewers were employees who worked in roles similar to the ones that I am applying for. My HR contact/recruiter has been my point of contact for all communications regarding the application process.

I would appreciate a bit of insight concerning this matter.

Edit: The industries in question are banking and strategy consulting.

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    Personally, I have never sent a thank you note after an interview. I am in the US, and none of my friends or acquaintances have ever done that. Are you in the US?
    – nightsurfer
    Sep 8, 2022 at 13:23
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    If you don't have any contact information, how have you stayed in touch with your "HR contacts"?
    – FerventHippo
    Sep 9, 2022 at 12:07
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    @FerventHippo I guess he got emails of the hr people. But in an interview, some other people also take part like team lead, team members etc.. In my experience, companies normally do not share all contact data of all participants until nessessary. The contact of the interviewee is HR, not the team lead of the position itself.
    – Chrᴉz remembers Monica
    Sep 9, 2022 at 14:07
  • @ChrᴉzremembersMonica that makes sense. However, in that sense it would be good to clarify in the questions who the "interviewers" are that the asker wishes to contact.
    – FerventHippo
    Sep 9, 2022 at 14:31
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    I am from the US and was surprised to read @nightsurfer's comment. Every career workshop I ever attended in high school, college etc. included "send a thank-you note to the interviewers" as a standard tip. Might this be a generational and/or domain difference?
    – Max
    Sep 11, 2022 at 7:09

5 Answers 5

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I'll make it very simple:

  • If you have a communication address (email), you can send a note thanking them for the opportunity and mentioning that you're looking forward to hear from them.

    In your case, you can send the note to the HR who wrote to you. You're thanking the organisation overall for the opportunity, not the individual(s).

  • If you do not have a communication address, no need to go out of the line to find out the possible address and send a note (for individual interviewer(s)). You never know how it'll be perceived, and it's not worth the risk.

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    Indeed, the location/culture/industry differences in expectations are interesting but a moot point here. No reasonable person is expecting to get an email from someone they never gave their email address to.
    – BSMP
    Sep 8, 2022 at 16:14
  • Even if you have the contact info I would still wait for the company to initiate the next contact.
    – deep64blue
    Sep 9, 2022 at 9:05
  • @deep64blue I was suggesting to reply to the HR communication, edited to clarify.
    – Sourav Ghosh
    Sep 9, 2022 at 14:01
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    You will likely end up just sending a note to HR but when you do so, make sure you mention something like, "Please pass on my thanks to Bob, Jim, and Susan for taking the time to consider and interview me." That way it doesn't seem like you are just thanking HR, you are expecting/asking them to pass your thanks on to the group of people that interviewed you. If you don't have or don't remember individual names, you can just make it generic like, "Please pass on my thanks to the interview panel for taking the time to consider and interview me."
    – JeffC
    Sep 10, 2022 at 6:02
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I agreed with the Philip Kendall’s answer.

I am in the US, and have worked for many software companies. I have never sent a thank-you note after the interviews either. It is not necessary to do so if you are interviewed for software engineer positions.

The reason is that most interviewers are very busy. They don't have time to read those notes. They won't think that you are not polite or not interested in the jobs if you don't send them the thank-you notes. Software engineers are very practical and realistic in this aspect.

Note: However, if you work on other industries, or in different areas of the world with different cultures, then you may or may not need to send thank-you notes after the interviews. It depends.

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    "The reason is that most interviewers are very busy." <- I go slightly further than this: interviewing is part of my job. I'm paid to do it. There's no need for anyone to go out of their way to thank me for that (possibly unless I did something exceptional).
    – Philip Kendall
    Sep 8, 2022 at 18:20
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    @PhilipKendall but it can be a cultural thing also. Thanking someone may not be warranted (as they are doing their job), but sometimes it goes a long way. Obviously, that does not mean crossing the line is acceptable, but in many cases (for example: if then contact email is available), a thank you note might not harm. YMMV.
    – Sourav Ghosh
    Sep 9, 2022 at 8:29
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    @SouravGhosh Its still out of the ordinary and not a good idea. If you want to thank me at the end of the interview (a simple "Thanks for your time"), that's fine. Don't bother me when I'm back doing my real work. At best it will have no effect. At worst it will annoy me.
    – Gabe Sechan
    Sep 9, 2022 at 19:23
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    As a hiring manager in the US, I've received a few thank you emails over the years. Those that were personalized and referenced specifics of the interview created a good impression; although I had already rated and recorded my thoughts about the candidates in our ATS system, the notes might have influenced subsequent consideration of their candidacy. A couple were rather generic; I don't think I held it against the candidates, but these notes conveyed neither sincere gratitude nor helped their candicacy.
    – erickson
    Sep 9, 2022 at 23:36
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    @JeffC In the context of a job interview it can create the impression that you're a suck-up. That doesn't mean the recipient is offended, but they might get a bad impression about you.
    – Mark Rotteveel
    Sep 10, 2022 at 12:02
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It is my understanding that it is always proper etiquette to send thank you notes to one's interviewers after an interview.

This is certainly not a universal truth; I have done many interviews in the UK tech industry in my time, both as an interviewee and interviewer, and never sent nor received a thank you note. And I like to think I have a pretty good record of getting job offers from those interviews - and it would make essentially zero difference to me as an interviewer if I did receive a thank you note.

Therefore my answer would be "no", but I wouldn't have sent one even if I did have their contact details. If you understand more about your location and industry and believe that it is actually beneficial to send a thank you note, you may have a different answer.

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    He's right. Even in the US. Don't bother with this. It's just a silly thing recruiters tell wide-eyed green-eared novices but it is rare and inconsequential when anyone actually does this.
    – Spencer Williams
    Sep 9, 2022 at 15:46
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Would it be perceived as poor etiquette if I looked up their email addresses to send thank you notes, when this information was not provided to me in the first place?

It would be perfectly fine to do this, as long as you can determine the correct work email addresses.

As @yshavit wisely points out, send it to their work email accounts, never their personal email accounts.

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    Personally I would find this weird. I've conducted multiple interviews, but if I were to receive an unsolicited email from an interviewee, without giving them my work address, it would be very weird. I don't agree with this Joe, one cannot assume how this would be perceived.
    – nightsurfer
    Sep 9, 2022 at 13:20
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    While I agree with the concept of sending a thank you email, it might come across as weird if I had to look up their email somewhere outside of the email thread I was originally contacted on. I would just email back the company contacts and ask them to pass on my thanks to all who interviewed me that might not be on the email thread.
    – JeffC
    Sep 10, 2022 at 6:11
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In such case, it seems proper to me to connect with your interviewers on LinkedIn, instead of sending emails.

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