How to follow up after a job application or interview (with templates)

After submitting an application

If you applied through a form and have no contact, do not follow up. Nobody reads the careers inbox for status requests, and the application already sits in the system. If you know the hiring manager or recruiter, one short message a week after applying is fine: say which role, one line on why you fit, and that you are glad to share more. Do not ask whether they received it.

After an interview: the thank-you that works

Send it the same day or the next morning, to each person you spoke with if you have their emails, otherwise to the recruiter to forward. Three sentences: thanks, one specific thing from the conversation, one line reinforcing why you fit. Do not restate your whole case or send attachments they did not ask for.

When the deadline they gave has passed

If they said 'you will hear by Friday' and it is the next Wednesday, one polite note is reasonable. Keep it to two lines and give them an easy out.

When you have another offer

This is the one follow-up that reliably gets a reply. Be honest about the timeline, say that they are your preference if that is true, and ask whether they can move faster. Do not invent an offer; it is a small industry.

Never do these

• Follow up more than twice without a reply. The silence is the answer.
• Call the office switchboard for a status update.
• Send the same message to five people at the company.
• Ask for feedback on a rejection in the first reply; wait a week, then ask once, briefly.

Keeping track

Follow-ups only work if you know who said what and when. Keep each application's thread in one place: the posting, the resume version you sent, the replies, the dates promised. Break-In Bad does this for you: employer replies land in one inbox matched to the job, interview invites are flagged the moment they arrive, and you reply from the same place.