Job searching can sometimes be discouraging. You put a great deal of time into reading job descriptions and finding the right opportunity that matches your goals and abilities. You write a friendly, professional cover letter to introduce yourself and send it to the employer along with a copy of your polished and carefully crafted resume. And then, most of the time, you hear nothing back from the employer.
Don't take it personally. Just because you don't get a response from the company doesn't mean that you weren't qualified for the job or that you somehow messed up your application. It's just that in most cases, employers receive many more applications from candidates for their job ads than they can possibly interview. Usually, only the applicants they select to meet with receive any response.
Some employers have automated responses set up for applications. These auto-generated emails thank candidates for their interest in the role and let them know that only those who make it to the next round of the recruitment process will receive a phone call. While not as good as hearing from the hiring manager, this response lets you know your application went through and is under review.
Whether or not you receive the confirmation email for your application, the next few weeks after you submit your resume for a job can be excruciating. Landing a new job is a big deal. It can radically impact your day-to-day life – and your income. So that period of sitting around, checking your email, and watching your phone for a response can seem to take forever.
The questions can keep you up at night. Are you one of the ones who will be called for an interview? Have they already called those people? Are they still reviewing applications? Could you have done more to differentiate yourself from the competition for the role?
One way to make yourself stand out and possibly shorten the waiting time and get some answers is with a professional follow-up to your application. However, you have to do this carefully, or you could end up hurting your chances of getting hired.
No phone calls, please
You should follow up by email. Even if you can find the name and phone number of the hiring manager or the HR person doing the recruiting for the job, no employer ever wants to receive unsolicited phone calls from candidates asking about the status of their application. As we mentioned earlier, companies receive a lot of resumes in response to their job postings, and they simply don't have time to speak with them all.
While it is good to take initiative and show enthusiasm for the role, you do not want to do it in a way that annoys the employer you are hoping to impress.
Time it right
Of course, you want to hear back from the employer right away after applying for a job. This rarely happens. Hiring professionals usually want to review a number of applications to compare before determining which candidates they want to get in touch with. So, if you were to follow up in the first couple of days, they may not have even begun reading applications.
Furthermore, even if they have read your resume and you were going to be on the shortlist of candidates for an interview, following up too early can do more harm than good. Employers prefer motivated candidates. However, they are less enthused with desperate job seekers, and they also don't like pushy ones.
Following up too early, expecting a response to an application you just sent, can give the impression that you fall into one or both of the latter two categories.
You should wait at least a week before sending your follow-up email, and two weeks is often better.
Follow up with the right person
Ideally, you should address your follow-up email to the person who is doing the hiring for the position. If you applied for the job by email directly to the individual in charge, then this is easy. You already have the advantage of knowing who to address in your email.
However, if you applied through a website, you may not have been given the contact details or any information at all about who is actually doing the hiring for the role.
Even if you have never communicated directly with the hiring manager, there are still a few ways to find out who you should follow up with.
Check the job posting for indications of who the role reports to. Often job descriptions will include information such as "Reporting to the Director of Finance, the new hire will be responsible for…."
Once you have found out who you would be reporting to, you can look at the company's website or social media profiles to see if you can find out exactly who the Director of Finance is.
Even if the job posting doesn't mention the reporting structure for the role, you can often still determine who the manager would be. Whether you are applying for a job in Communications, Sales, or Finance, an online search of the company and that department should tell you who the head of that branch of the organization is. In the case of smaller companies where individuals rather than teams fill these functions, you will most likely be applying to the head of the company itself rather than a department head. That person's identity should be searchable online.
Once you have the name of the person you want to follow up with, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to find the structure of the corporate email addresses. It's often first initial plus last name @ the company domain, but there are variations, so check the company website and social posts to be sure.
If you really can't find the hiring manager's name, don't fall into old-fashioned habits of using "To Whom it May Concern" or "Dear Sir or Madam." Those will only make you appear outdated and overly formal. Instead, try something such as "Dear Company Name," "Hello Finance Director," or "Hi Finance Hiring Committee.…"
That same bit of detective work can also help you find the name of the person to address when writing your cover letter.
Write a professional follow-up email
Your follow-up email should be brief, friendly, and positive. If the employer hasn't read your job application yet, this will be their first impression of you. If they have read it, you want your email to do as much as possible to increase your chances of landing an interview.
Introduce yourself, reiterate your enthusiasm for the role, mention your key selling points, ask the employer if there is any more information you can provide them, and politely enquire about the next steps in the hiring process.
This is much of the same information you would include in a cover letter, just worded differently for the context of the follow-up.
Here is an example:
Dear Joan Recruiter,
I hope you are doing well. I applied for the Finance Manager position you are hiring for earlier this month. I am very excited about the prospect of joining your team, so I thought I would follow up to see if there was any more information I could provide you with that might help my chances.
I have over a decade of professional experience with major brands like Acme and Beta Corp., managing budgets, preparing financial reports, and overseeing forecasts and audits for multi-million-dollar businesses.
Please let me know what the next steps in the recruitment process are and if there is anything I could do to make it easier for you. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Joe Candidate
A professional follow-up to your job application can highlight your commitment and enthusiasm for the opportunity. However, the job offer is still going to go to the candidate with the most relevant skills, qualifications, and experience. But in a close call between similarly qualified applicants, recruiters may be swayed by your professional communication skills and the extra effort you put in. So, following up can give you the edge.
It may also get you some answers sooner about the status of your application. Even if you don't get the job, receiving a response to your follow-up that thanks you for your interest but lets you know that they've gone with another candidate is still better than waiting by the phone for a call that isn't going to come.
