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I recently went to a job interview, and would like to send a thank you letter to the interviewers. There were two interviewers; one manager and one person from HR that was called in on the spot to fill in for another person that was supposed to interview me originally. Here's my pinch: The manager was the person conducting most of the actual interview - and it was pretty obvious that he is the one that makes the decisions - but I don't have his email address. I do, however, have the email address of the HR person who filled in. I was told I would get notified on how it went very soon, and so I doubt I'll have enough time to send letters in the mail.

Should I ask the HR person for the managers email, and then send them both a thank you letter afterwards? If so, how would I phrase it?

Should I write the thank you letter, send it to the HR person, and ask him to forward it to the manager?

Or perhaps there is another procedure that's more appropriate?

-----------------------------------EDIT---------------------------------------

I guess I was a bit unclear. I'd like to send an email to the parties. I just wanted to point out that I won't have time to send them actual physical mail, as it won't arrive on time.

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I am going to guess that the comment meant that you don't have to send a physical thank you letter, as a thank you e-mail will be perfectly acceptable.

Probably the easiest way to get the information, if it's not on the website, is to write the HR person whose contact info you have (as you noted) and ask them. You could say that you wanted to write a thank you to the manager, but realized that you didn't have the manager's contact info, and would appreciate it if the HR person could forward it to you. Then once you have the address, you can send the formal thank-yous to both parties.

That, to me, would be the simplest and most appropriate way. You could also call, and use the same script.

Good luck :)

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Don't send a thank you letter (or email) if that's the only thing it says. Think of it from their point of view. It conveys no information and only wastes their time.

You are probably contemplating this because you feel the need to keep pinging them in the misguided hope that this will somehow increase your chances of getting a offer. Wrong. They interviewed you. They clearly know you exists and have a reasonable amount of information on you. The next steps are up to them, which they will execute at their speed using their process, influenced by a lot of things you have no way of knowing about. Trying to subvert this process will only be annoying to them and will make you look like a childish weenie (Have I got the job yet? Huh? Huh? Well, do I?).

If you have some follow up information that was discussed during the interview, you can send a message with that. However, if the interviewers wanted to allow you to contact them, they would have given you their business cards.

Thanking someone when they haven't actually gone out of their way for you can be perceived as insulting. You are basically saying that you think they are so childish that they need to be thanked for something that was a normal part of their job. Don't be that weenie.

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    I am going to completely disagree on this. I think it is professional and polite to send a thank you to interviewers. It doesn't have to be pestering, but can simply say "Thank you for your time. I enjoyed learning about <subject> from you." Receiving a genuine thank you from a candidate would always make me view them in a more positive light.
    – David K
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 15:12
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    @David: I suppose this differs between job types. I'm in engineering, and have had to assist the boss in digging thru a pile of resumes and interviewing candidates. Most of the time you don't hear anything from a candidate after the interview, and that's just fine. One time someone actually sent us a formal thankyou card, in a pretty colored envelope no less. It got passed around and we all had a good laugh. The guy didn't get hired, although that was because he didn't know anything. Coming accross as a kiss-ass wouldn't have helped if we were on the fence about him though.
    – Olin Lathrop
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 16:31
  • In the US, at least, a brief note or email is widely considered appropriate and professional, not an attempt to subvert any process. Even if it's something that you personally don't find helpful, you should be sufficiently aware that candidates are routinely advised to send a thank you note (e.g. here and here) that you should view it as a pleasant if unnecessary courtesy, not as the mark of a sycophant.
    – Caleb
    Commented Mar 12, 2015 at 4:26

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