How many times should I follow up on a job application?
Three touches to one inbox, then stop. Three captures roughly 93% of the replies a sequence will ever earn, and a fourth to the same person is pestering. Day 4 a short nudge on the same thread with no attachment, day 9 one last nudge on that thread, and on day 16 only if you know a second real address at that company, a fresh approach to them with the CV. Any reply stops everything, including an automated one. Keep follow-ups on the original thread, because a new thread reads as a new stranger.
The three touches
Three messages to one inbox capture around 93% of the replies a sequence will ever earn. Past that the curve is flat and the cost is not.
- Day 4 — a short nudge on the same thread. No attachment, two or three lines, no new argument.
- Day 9 — one last nudge, same thread.
- Day 16 — only if you know a second real address at that company. A first email to a new person is a new conversation, which is the one good reason to go past three.
Any reply stops everything
Including an automated one. An autoresponder means the address works and a human will see the thread; nudging it is pestering somebody who has not had the chance to read you yet.
Keep it on the same thread
A follow-up in a fresh thread reads as a second stranger writing about the same job. Threaded, it reads as the same person being reasonable.
What a nudge should say
Morning — just bumping this in case it got buried. Still very interested in the Maintenance Technician role, and happy to come to you any day this week. Harry
No new pitch, no apology for writing, no second question. The first email made the case; this one only makes it visible again.
The whole sequence, with the letters it follows, is in the playbook.
Where these numbers come from
86 cold emails to real UK employers over four weeks, sent by one person looking for work, logged as they went. 22 replies. The full method and every table is in the playbook, free, no account.
They are engineering and technician roles in Scotland, so a different trade may behave differently. Where a row is thin it says so on the row.
Since then: 171 applications across 137 employers, 32 replies, 19%. Live, and updated after every run.
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