How to follow up after applying for a job

Start with the hiring manager: the person the new hire will report to. They feel the open seat most, and they can tell you what the job needs. A note to the careers inbox or a reply to an automated email may never reach them.

Three other people sit close to the same hire. Each one can help in a different way, so each gets a message written for them, not a copy of the hiring manager’s note.

Apply through the posting, then write your first note to the hiring manager the same day or the next. Use email when you can find a work address you trust. Otherwise, use LinkedIn.

Two days after the first note, try the other channel once. If you emailed, send a LinkedIn connection request. If you started on LinkedIn, send an email if you have an address. A second channel reaches people who don't check one of them often.

Seven days after the first note, if nobody has replied, send one follow-up. A week gives a busy person time to read your note, and it keeps your message close enough that they still remember it.

If a LinkedIn request is still pending, check on it after 1 day, then after 3 days and 7 days. After 21 days, consider withdrawing it and using email instead. Old pending requests can count against your account.

A good follow-up gives the reader something new. Look for a detail that came out after your first note: a new job posting on the same team, a product update, a talk, or a public post. Connect it to the same proof point from your experience, then repeat your ask in one question.

Skip “just checking in” and “bumping this up.” They ask the reader to do work without giving them a reason. If you can’t find a new, verified detail, don’t invent one. Send nothing rather than a second copy of the first note.

Keep it shorter than your first message. A follow-up email is 2–3 sentences in the same thread, so the reader can see what you said before. A LinkedIn message stays under 300 characters with no sign-off.

Both examples below are illustrative. The company, people, dates and experience are invented. Use the structure, then fill it with details that are true for you.

After three messages to one person (the first note, the second channel and one follow-up), stop. More messages don’t add new information. They add pressure, and pressure is easy to ignore.

Stopping isn’t giving up on the job. Write to the next person close to the hire, add your next job, and keep your reps going. Someone who didn’t reply this month may still remember a short, specific note later.

If someone replies with a no, thank them in one or two sentences. Ask nothing more of them. If they say “not now,” ask when a better time would be, note the date, and come back to it then.

If they reply at all, answer within a day. A reply is the point of the whole sequence, so give it your full attention before you send anything new.

Send every LinkedIn message yourself. Open the person’s profile, choose Connect, and add a short note if your account allows one. Free accounts can add a note to only a few requests a month; without one, your thank-you message does the work.

When they accept, send a short thank-you with your resume attached. If you emailed earlier, say when. Use the LinkedIn follow-up above only after that, and only if there’s still no reply.

Don’t use tools that log in to LinkedIn for you, send messages automatically, or copy profiles. LinkedIn’s User Agreement doesn’t allow bots or other automated tools to send messages or add contacts. A few messages a day, written and sent by you, is the whole method.

Day60 helps you identify the four people closest to the hire and drafts a message for each one, written to these rules. Today shows when each follow-up is due, and Tick checks every draft before you send it.

Day60 never logs in to LinkedIn and never sends anything for you. You copy each message, send it yourself, and mark it sent.