How to follow up on a job application

Yes, follow up once. Send one short email about one to two weeks after you apply. Address it to a named person if the posting or confirmation email gives you one. Check the candidate portal before you write, because some statuses rule a follow-up out.

The six pages that rank for this search give four different waits: 7–14 days, 1–2 weeks, at least two weeks, and a few business days. None cites a source. This page shows which employer surveys exist, how old they are, and where they disagree.

Should I follow up on a job application?

Employer surveys disagree on whether you should follow up at all. In a 2017 Accountemps survey of 300+ HR managers at US companies with 20 or more employees, none said a candidate should not follow up after sending a résumé. A newer survey by a résumé vendor, Novorésumé, published in 2025 and updated in 2026, found about 41% of 200+ HR professionals prefer no follow-up at all; the other 59% or so split between one week and two weeks. The 2017 survey is older but was run by an independent research firm. The newer one is vendor-run and gives no field dates or sampling method.

Neither survey measured what a follow-up does. They ask what HR professionals prefer, not whether a follow-up changed an interview or offer decision.

Most applicants should expect silence. In a March 2019 Talentegy survey of 4,000+ candidates who had applied in the prior 24 months, 55.1% said they were rarely or never kept informed of their status, and 63.2% were dissatisfied with communication after applying. In the same survey, 94.9% rated knowing how to follow up on an application at least somewhat important; that is not the same as calling it the most important thing. An older CareerBuilder survey, from November 2012, found 75% of 3,991 US workers never heard back after applying. Treat that one as history.

How long should I wait before following up?

The only dated employer survey on wait time is still the 2017 one. In it, 29% of HR managers said wait under a week after sending a résumé, 36% said one to two weeks, 25% said two to three weeks, and 10% said three weeks or more.

Hiring-time data shows why one to two weeks is a reasonable default. SHRM’s 2025 benchmarking survey of 2,371 members found the screening and interviewing phases each averaged 8–9 days, and put median time-to-fill at roughly a month and a half. Huntr, a job-tracker vendor, reported a median 29 days to a first interview and 108 days to a first offer across 139,927 tracked applications in early 2026.

Some roundups quote Glassdoor’s 23.8 days as how long hiring takes. The 2017 Glassdoor study, from about 84,000 interview reviews, measured the interview process in the US, not the wait from applying to a first reply.

Our reading of these numbers: follow up one to two weeks after applying. That is the most common answer in the 2017 survey, and it lands around the end of SHRM’s average screening phase, before most interviewing would be done. We found no source for two claims seen on other pages: that ATS screening takes one to three weeks, and that follow-ups should go out Tuesday to Thursday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Check your application status first

A portal can rule a follow-up out before you send it. Greenhouse turns an application inactive after a rejection email, or four days after a rejection if no email is sent, and does not tell the candidate. An inactive Greenhouse row or an “Application closed” status means do not follow up.

Workday sends no notification when a status changes either. Review shows as “Submitted” and interviews as “In Progress”, while a decline moves to “Completed”. Labels vary by employer and live in Candidate Home, under your applications.

Not every application appears in a portal, and a status may not move until the hiring team shares an update. Lever has no candidate portal at all and tells applicants to contact the company. None of these vendors publishes a follow-up interval. For how to tell which system you applied through, see ATS application status by system and Workday status meanings.

Who should I send the follow-up to?

Send it to the recruiter or hiring manager named on the posting or in your confirmation email. If nobody is named, reply to the confirmation email. If that came from a no-reply address, use the contact address on the posting. Do not guess personal addresses from LinkedIn, naming patterns or company directories.

Email, phone or LinkedIn?

Email. The only method split we found is the 2017 Accountemps survey: HR managers picked email 64%, phone 21%, in person 14%, social media 1% and text 0%. It is old, but it matches what a written note gives both sides: a record, no pressure to answer on the spot, and a reply that stays with your application.

What do I say? A follow-up email template

Keep it under 100 words. Fill in the brackets and make the last line of the body specific to the role.

Subject: [Job title] application — [Your name]

Hi [Name],

I applied for [Job title] on [date] and want to confirm my application arrived. I remain interested and would be glad to answer any questions. The most relevant thing I bring is [one short line tied to the role].

Thank you,
[Your name]
[Phone]

If you only have a LinkedIn contact, two sentences are enough: “Hi [Name], I applied for [Job title] on [date] and wanted to confirm it arrived. I’d be glad to answer any questions while the team is reviewing.”

How many times should I follow up?

Once. Send a second message only if something real has changed, such as another offer with a deadline or a new result that makes your case stronger. Then move on and mark the row in your tracker. Never after a rejection or a portal status that already rules you out. No study we found measured how many follow-ups help, so this is our advice, not a measured rule.

Keep the date somewhere you will see it

Put the follow-up date in a tracker row the day you apply, not in your head. Our free job application tracker template has a Next follow-up column for this; the Google Sheets copy highlights it once the date passes.