You've applied. Or you've interviewed. And now you're in that horrible limbo where you're refreshing your inbox every 45 minutes and wondering whether to say something.
Should you follow up? Will it help? Will it make you look desperate, or keen, or both?
Here's the honest answer: a well-timed, well-worded follow-up email can absolutely make a difference. A poorly timed or badly written one can quietly damage your chances. The difference between the two is smaller than you'd think.
Should you follow up after applying?
In most cases, not immediately, and not speculatively to ask "did you get my application?"
If a role has had 200 applicants (and many do), a chase-up email asking for confirmation puts the recruiter in an awkward position and doesn't actually help you. Your application is in the system. They got it. An email asking whether they did suggests you don't quite understand how volume hiring works.
The exception is speculative outreach or direct applications to smaller companies where you're genuinely building a relationship rather than going through a formal process. If you've already made contact before applying, a brief follow-up a week or so later is entirely reasonable. If that's your situation, the advice in our guide to speculative applications: how to reach out when there's no job posted will be more relevant to you than the templates below.
For formal advertised roles, save your energy for after the interview.
After an interview: yes, always follow up
This is where a follow-up email genuinely earns its keep. Most candidates don't send one. The ones who do stand out and not because recruiters are desperate for thank-you notes, but because a good post-interview email gives you a second chance to reinforce something, correct something, or simply remind them that you exist as a human being rather than a line on a shortlist.
Send it within 24 hours of the interview, while the conversation is still fresh. If you interviewed on a Friday afternoon, Monday morning is fine.
What to actually say in a post-interview follow-up
Keep it short. Three or four short paragraphs at most. You're not writing a second cover letter.
The structure that works:
- Thank them for their time briefly
- Reference one specific thing from the conversation (this proves you were actually paying attention)
- Reinforce your enthusiasm for the role in one sentence
- Make it easy to reply or move forward
Here's a template you can adapt:
Subject: Thank you - [Job Title] interview, [your name]
Hi [Name],
Thank you for taking the time to speak with me yesterday about the [Job Title] role. I really enjoyed hearing more about [specific thing discussed the team structure, the upcoming project, the challenge you mentioned around X].
It's made me even more confident that this is a role I could contribute to quickly, particularly around [one relevant strength you bring]. I also wanted to mention [optional: anything you wish you'd said more clearly, or a point you want to reinforce].
I look forward to hearing about next steps. Please do let me know if there's anything else you need from me in the meantime.
Best wishes, [Your name]
The specific reference in the second paragraph is the most important bit. "I enjoyed learning more about the role" tells them nothing. "I found the conversation about your plans to expand the data team really interesting" tells them you were engaged, that you listen, and that you remember what was said. That matters.
How long to wait before chasing
If the interviewer told you when to expect feedback, wait until that deadline has passed before following up and then add a couple of days on top. Processes almost always take longer than recruiters predict, not because they're disorganised, but because hiring decisions involve multiple people, diaries, and competing priorities.
If no timeline was given, wait seven to ten working days after the interview before sending a polite chase.
The chase email doesn't need to be elaborate:
Subject: Following up [Job Title] interview
Hi [Name],
I hope you're well. I wanted to follow up on the [Job Title] interview from [date]. I'm still very interested in the role and wondered if you had any update on timelines.
No pressure at all I just wanted to stay in touch and reiterate my enthusiasm.
Best wishes, [Your name]
That's it. One chase is professional. Two starts to feel like pressure. Three makes you memorable for the wrong reasons.
Dealing with silence
The hardest part of job hunting is often the silence, and it helps to understand why it happens. Hiring freezes kick in mid-process. A role gets restructured. The hiring manager goes on annual leave. A strong internal candidate emerges. None of these have anything to do with you.
If you've sent a polite follow-up and heard nothing after another week, move on mentally. Keep applying. Keep having conversations. The anxiety of waiting on one role is partly a symptom of not having enough in the pipeline.
On that note, if you're making the most of your applications but not getting traction, it might be worth revisiting how recruiters are finding you in the first place. Our guide on how to use LinkedIn to get noticed by recruiters covers the kind of passive visibility that can reduce how much chasing you need to do in the first place.
A word on tone
The single biggest mistake candidates make in follow-up emails is sounding either too formal or too pleading. Both create distance.
Too formal: "Please accept this communication as confirmation of my continued interest in the aforementioned position." Nobody talks like this. Nobody should write like it either.
Too pleading: "I really, really want this job and would be so grateful for any update." This shifts the emotional weight onto the recruiter in a way that's uncomfortable for everyone.
Aim for the tone of a confident professional who's genuinely interested but not hanging their entire self-worth on the outcome. Warm, brief, easy to respond to. Think of it less as a plea and more like a gentle nudge from someone who knows their own value.
If you're at the application stage rather than the interview stage and your follow-up needs to include a letter of some kind, the principles in our guide to how to start a cover letter, first lines that get you read apply equally here. First impressions in written communication are everything.
The practical checklist before you hit send
Before any follow-up email goes out, run through these quickly:
- Have you spelt their name correctly?
- Is the subject line clear and specific (not just "Following up")?
- Have you re-read it aloud to check the tone?
- Is it short enough that they'll read it in under 30 seconds?
- Have you avoided any typos particularly in the job title?
That last one matters more than people realise. Getting the job title wrong in a follow-up email suggests you're firing off generic messages rather than engaging with this specific role.
Sources
- CIPD. Resourcing and talent planning survey. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2023. https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/reports/resourcing-talent-planning/
- Totaljobs. The Candidate Experience Report. Totaljobs Group, 2022. https://www.totaljobs.com/recruiter-advice/candidate-experience-report
- Reed. Job Application Advice and Insights. Reed.co.uk. https://www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/job-applications
- GOV.UK. Looking for work and applying for jobs. Department for Work and Pensions. https://www.gov.uk/looking-for-work-if-youre-disabled
- LinkedIn. Global Talent Trends Report 2024. LinkedIn Talent Solutions. https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/global-talent-trends