You just responded to an open position with your CV or finished an interview with an interested company. How long should you wait before following up without getting fired before you're hired?

Lookout Bunny

Are You An Annoying Job Seeker?

Via CareerHub, JobHelper.com gives 3 tips on the appropriate delays to wait during the first steps of the recruitment process so that you can avoid irritating your hiring contacts. Once the company wants you they may be willing to overlook some minor annoyances but at such an early stage, even the slightest distaste can be the difference between a call back and a call off.

3 Follow Up Tips

According to the article:

  1. “After you submit your resume online, wait at least one week before your initial follow-up.”
  2. “If you get an interview, listen to what they tell you about the hiring timeline…WRITE IT DOWN and follow their instructions exactly.”
  3. “If you receive no reply to your post-interview follow up call or thank you note, send an email approximately three days later…”

I agree with tips #2 and #3, but #1 is overkill in Israel unless you received an immediate email confirmation after sending your CV.

If there was no email confirmation, email or call the next business day to verify that your CV arrived at its destination.

As long as the call is polite, short and to the point, the reception will usually be cordial and sometimes you'll get lucky as the person on the phone will actually glance at the found CV and they might even react immediately.

Or they could bite your head off over the phone for being impatient, as happened to me once with a major web agency based in the center of Israel. Once. Out of dozens of follow-ups. Either way, you'll have a better grasp of your candidacy only one day into the process.

If you liked this article, you'll also enjoy 39 Best Job Search Tip Articles of 2008.

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Jacob Share

Job Search Expert, Professional Blogger, Creative Thinker, Community Builder with a sense of humor. I like to help people.

This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. ced

    I agree. Israelis are much less hung up on formalities.

  2. Kate

    Yes.

  3. Kate

    I am also an annoying comment maker.

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