Thank you notes are the most underestimated steps of the job search process and really should be taken more seriously.

While you may look forward to receiving a thank you note from your best friend whose wedding party you were in, recruiters look forward to your thank you note for a very different reason. For us, these are a sneaky way to see the real you. Through these a recruiter sees your true spelling and grammar abilities. Recruiters know that career coaches help candidates write their cover letters and resumes, but rarely does anyone seek advice for a thank you note. Having grammatical and spelling mistakes in a thank you note WILL cost you your job offer if the job requires those skills. The worst part is that you’ll never know that that’s what did you in, especially if you knocked them dead in the interview.

Despite the fact that the thank you note is so critical, if you show your thank you letter to all the people who helped you with your resume, you’re doing yourself and your new company a disservice. Here’s why…if you aren’t showing your new boss the real you, and they discover later that you have poor grammar and spelling skills, they are going to realize their mistake soon enough…and that will be that.