I've only ever hired one person, so my experience in this is limited. I was on the fence between the two top people. Both were great, right out of college and

I've only ever hired one person, so my experience in this is limited. I was on the fence between the two top people. Both were great, right out of college and seemed eager to learn. One sent a thank you card, the other did not. I hired the one that didn't send a thank you card because I was more concerned about keeping out a (potential) kiss-ass in the thank you note writer. Also, I don't think a thank you note is courteous. If I believed that I'd also need to think that not sending a thank you note is a sign of an absence of courtesy. Making courtesy a function of thank you notes would cause them be thrown out ad nauseum and would lose some meaning.