Is a thank you letter a nicety or critical business protocol? 

In days gone by, guests of dinner parties penned thoughtful little thank you notes to their hosts and hostesses, in gratitude for their hospitality.  Nowadays, those notes have gone the way of the fifteen-cent subway token, as have most of the genteel manners that we as a society seem to have lost, ignored, or simply trampled in our daily rush through our lives.  Sometimes, however, the tried and true remains valid, and that is the case with thank you letters (also called “follow up letters”) to your prospective employers.

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Do you remember this scene from the great old movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?  Pursued by the law, anti-heroes Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) arrive at a bluff overlooking a long drop ending in churning waters.   Butch screams, “Jump!”  And his partner hollers back, “I can’t swim!”  Confronted with personal questions on interviews, job applicants can be made to feel like Butch and Sundance at the end of that cliff: damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.

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Whether you serve as consultant in the field of IT, Healthcare, or myriad other industries, your status as a consultant can prove to be a conundrum during the interview process.  As any consultant knows, one of his/her greatest hurdles is employers’ prevailing perceptions that:

a) the consultant’s skills sets are not worthy of permanent employment, and
b) the consultant has bounced around and perhaps even likes bounding around from job to job.

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Even before the economy soured, telephone interviews were becoming prevalent as a hiring practice.  Office politics and governmental regulations often demanded that managers give a voice to applicants whose resumes painted them as anything other than perfect fits for the available positions.  Telephone interviews became an expedient means of separating the wheat from the chaff.  The wheat that did emerge (viable candidates) was subsequently granted the more time-consumptive and in-depth interviews.   Employers now facing a gut of applicants do not have the luxury of granting face-to-face interviews to every single candidate.  Thus, the telephone interview has gained even more significance in this tightened economy.

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In forcing job candidates to run a rather daunting gauntlet, renowned chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay always tosses in an extra monkey wrench.  As his reality TV series Hell’s Kitchen winds down, the final two contestants invariably confront some culinary horror for which they have never bargained — or been warned.

Is Ramsay a sadist?

While his public persona seems to invite debate upon that very issue, I see Ramsay as a savvy employer.  Management of a prestigious restaurant and a $250K per annum salary are what are riding, literally, on the line.  Choosy about the candidate he selects, the chef has every right to test how applicants react to an unforeseen event.  And if you think this scenario occurs solely on reality TV, think again.   With so few positions available, many employers like to play mind games with job hopefuls.

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Job seekers, gird your loins: you are about to learn an ugly truth.  As one of thousands vying for the same position, the skills highlighted on your resume are the same skills highlighted on the resumes of your competitors. With so many individuals demonstrating the same core competencies, how do employers select the right person to hire?  As much as an employer may deny this, it very often comes down to the likeability factor.  While the hiring manager must place her confidence in your skills, she must also sense that you will prove to be a trusted, loyal employee who will fit well within the company structure and culture.  In other words, she has to like you.

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