Follow-Up Email After Job Application: When and What to Send

Check the application status before you follow up

Before you send a follow-up email after a job application, look at what the job board already shows. A rejection there means you can skip the email, and a recent view means someone has opened your application.

On LinkedIn, LinkedIn's help page says that if you applied with Easy Apply for a job hosted on LinkedIn, you get application updates when the job poster views your application or downloads your resume. LinkedIn adds that a view or a download "doesn't guarantee that you'll receive a message, interview, or job offer." To find your LinkedIn applications on desktop, per LinkedIn's guide to applied jobs:

1. Click the Jobs icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Click Job tracker in the left-hand rail.
3. Click the Applied tab.
4. Click the job to open its details page.

On Indeed, My Jobs shows statuses updated by the employer or by Indeed, mainly for jobs posted directly on Indeed. Indeed's help page on applied jobs lists them, and these are the ones that matter before a follow-up:

• Application viewed: the employer reviewed your application.
• Employer reviewing applications: the employer is reviewing applications but has not reviewed yours yet.
• Not selected by employer: the employer rejected your application. Do not follow up.
• Job closed: the employer closed the job, or it expired.
• Response seems unlikely: Indeed shows this when the employer has already hired enough candidates, or when there has been no activity on your application for at least two weeks.

If you applied on a company's own portal, log back in and make sure the application shows as submitted before you write to anyone.

When to send a follow-up email after a job application

Wait about one week after you apply.

• If the posting gives a closing date or a timeline (for example "we will be in touch within two weeks"), wait until it has passed.
• If someone referred you or a recruiter asked you to apply, tell that person the same day that your application is in.
• If two weeks have passed with no news, send it now.
• If the posting asks applicants not to follow up, respect it and skip the email.

You do not need to follow up on every application. Save the effort for the roles you would take tomorrow and the ones where you have a named person to write to.

By the time a week has passed, you have usually sent several more applications, so the follow-up is easy to forget. Put a follow-up date on every application the day you send it. In the free HideJobs job tracker, that is the Follow-up column in the table view:

1. In the HideJobs web app, click Job Tracker in the left menu (the double-arrow icon).
2. If you see cards, click the Table button at the top of the page.
3. Scroll the table to the right until you see the Follow-up column.
4. If there is no Follow-up column, click Columns at the top right of the page and tick Follow-up.
5. Click the Follow-up cell in the job's row.
6. Pick the date you want to follow up.

On the follow-up date, the Follow-up cell turns red, and follow-up dates also show in the Next 7 Days calendar on the Dashboard page of the HideJobs web app. Jobs you apply to through LinkedIn's own apply flow are added to the tracker automatically when you use the HideJobs browser extension and are logged in. Indeed jobs can be saved with Add to Tracker in the extension while logged in, and anything else with Add Job. More on setting up the tracker is in the job application tracker guide.

Who to email when you applied online

When you applied through Easy Apply, Indeed, or a company's application portal, you often have no email address at all. Look in this order:

1. The job description. Some postings name a recruiter or give a contact email, and that is the first place to write.
2. LinkedIn's Meet the hiring team section. When a job's details page shows a Meet the hiring team section, LinkedIn says members can connect and message the entire team listed there, including the job poster. LinkedIn's help on applications also says you can send an InMail to the job poster to thank them for reviewing your application, and InMail is a Premium feature, according to its InMail credits page. You cannot send a second InMail to the same person until they reply to the first.
3. Indeed Messages. Indeed says you can send messages to employers directly from job listings, and some listings include employer contact details for direct messaging (About Indeed Messages).
4. Anyone who has already written to you about the role, such as a recruiter who reached out first.
5. A LinkedIn connection request with a note to someone in Meet the hiring team. Free members can add a personalized message to five connection requests per month, per LinkedIn's invitation limits page, so save them for the roles you want most.

When you find a name, save it on the job's Contacts tab in the HideJobs tracker. The AI Assistant needs that contact before it can draft the email (steps below).

If none of these exist, a careers or recruiting email on the posting or the company's careers page is the last option. Address it to the hiring team for the role and put the job title in the subject. If there is not even that, put your time into the next application.

What to write: job application follow-up email templates

A good follow-up email is short enough to read on a phone. Include:

• A subject line with the job title, so it can be matched to your application without opening it.
• When and where you applied, plus any job ID from the posting.
• One sentence on why you fit, tied to something in the job description.
• One clear question, usually about the timeline.

Leave out salary, a second copy of your cover letter, and any guilt-trip about not hearing back.

Subject lines that work:

• Following up on my application for [Job Title]
• [Job Title] application: [Your Name]
• Checking in on the [Job Title] role ([Job ID])

Example 1: first follow-up after applying online

Example 2: when someone referred you

Example 3: short message for LinkedIn or Indeed Messages

Swap in your own details, and keep one specific fact from your experience.

How to draft the follow-up email in HideJobs

If the job is in the HideJobs job tracker, the AI Assistant on that job writes the follow-up for you from the job title, the company, the contact, and any details you add. Drafting is free to try, and Premium gives you more AI usage. To draft a follow-up for an application that has had no reply:

1. In the Job Tracker, click the job's title to open it.
2. In the row of tabs on the job page, click Contacts.
3. Click Add Contact.
4. Enter the person's First Name and, if you have it, their Email.
5. Click Save.
6. In the same row of tabs, click AI Assistant.
7. Click Emails, next to Screening Call and Behavioral Questions.
8. Click Create email.
9. Under "Who is this email to?", choose the contact.
10. Under "What is this email about?", choose Reminder.
11. Under "Reminder focus (optional)", choose Follow up on no response.
12. Optionally, add a line under "Extra details for this email (optional)", such as the date you applied or a skill to mention.
13. Click Write with AI.
14. Edit the subject and body until they sound like you.
15. To send it by email, click Open in mail app below the draft.
16. To send it in LinkedIn or Indeed Messages instead, click the copy icon in the row of buttons below the draft.
17. Paste it into the message box on LinkedIn or Indeed.
18. Delete the "Subject:" line at the top of the pasted text.
19. Click Save to keep the draft with the job.

The second follow-up, and when to stop

If a week passes after your first follow-up with no reply, send one more, shorter message. Reply in the same thread so the reader sees your first email underneath. In the HideJobs tracker, set the job's Follow-up date to a week after your first email, so the cell turns red again when the second one is due. To draft it in HideJobs, repeat the drafting steps above, skipping Add Contact because the contact is already saved, and type "second follow-up" under Extra details for this email. Then copy the draft and paste it as a reply in the same thread as your first email.

After that, stop. Close the job out in the HideJobs tracker so it stops looking like an open lead:

1. In the Job Tracker table view, click the job's Status cell.
2. Choose No Response or Ghosted.

If the same employer keeps reposting the role without ever replying, it may not be a real opening. How to spot ghost jobs covers the warning signs. And if the silence is wearing you down, the guide to job search burnout has ways to keep going.