How long should I wait to hear back about a job application?
Give it 5 working days, then send one short follow-up as a reply to your first email. If nothing has come back 3 weeks after you applied, stop and put the time into the next application: a nudge to something the reader has forgotten is just another cold email. If the advert had a closing date, start counting from the closing date, because that is usually when applications are read. That is the rule Recruited follows for every letter it sends.
The timeline
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Day you apply | Send it to a real person as well as through any portal. |
| 5 working days on | One short follow-up, as a reply to your first email. |
| 3 weeks on | Stop. Put the time into the next application. |
What to send
No attachment on the follow-up: the CV went with the first email.
The follow-up calculator works out the exact dates from when and how you applied.
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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