The thank you email is not going to save a bad interview. But it is the last impression you leave, and in a process where most candidates are within a narrow range, small things add up. This applies to OCI, callbacks, and lateral interviews equally.

Send It — But Not Immediately

Within twenty-four hours. Not within the hour and not from your phone in the elevator. Give it enough time to write something considered, review it once, and send it from a real computer. Sending it within two hours reads as anxious. Sending it three days later reads as an afterthought.

Make It Specific

The thank you email that fails could have been sent to any of the twelve firms you interviewed with that day. The one that lands references something specific from the conversation — a topic you discussed, a piece of advice the interviewer gave. One line of genuine specificity transforms a formality into a reinforcement of the impression you already made.

Bad vs. Good — Side by Side

Bad: “Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. I was really impressed with what I learned about the firm and am very excited about the opportunity to potentially join your team.”

Good: “Thank you for the conversation this afternoon — your perspective on the shift toward cross-border transactions was something I hadn’t considered before and it genuinely made me think differently about where I want to focus. I came away more interested in [Firm] than when I arrived. I hope to stay in touch.”

The second one takes ninety seconds longer to write and leaves a completely different impression.

The thank you email is not a formality. It is the last sentence of a conversation that you want the other person to keep thinking about.

Related reading

• Top 5 OCI Interview Mistakes
• The Callback Interview: What Nobody Tells You
• The Networking Email That Gets a Response

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If you want to work through your full game plan from prep to follow-up, the first 15 minutes are free. More here. For a complete walkthrough of biglaw interviews — OCI through lateral — my book Biglaw Interview Advice is on Amazon.