Follow-up email after an interview: when to send it and what to write

Xiang (Arnold) Shang · 31 October 2026 · 7 min read

Short answer: if they told you when you would hear back, wait until the next working day after that date. If they did not, wait about a week. Then reply in the same email thread as your last message with the recruiter, ask one clear question (“is there an update on the next step?”), and keep it to four or five sentences. If two follow-ups get no answer, stop and put your energy into other applications.

This guide is about the email you send when you are waiting for news. The short thank you note you send on the day of the interview is a different email, with its own guide: thank you email after an interview.

How long to wait

Most delays after an interview have nothing to do with you: other candidates still have interviews, the hiring manager is travelling, or the budget needs another signature. A good follow-up gives them time for that, and then asks politely.

If you are not sure, ask at the end of the interview: “What are the next steps, and when should I expect to hear?” Their answer gives you a date, and a date makes the follow-up easy to write.

Who to write to

Write to the person who has been arranging your interviews. Usually that is the recruiter or someone in HR, not the people who interviewed you. The recruiter knows where the process is and whose decision it is waiting for.

If you only ever spoke to the hiring manager, write to the hiring manager. Write to one person, not to everyone you met, and use one channel: an email, not an email and a LinkedIn message and a phone call on the same day.

The subject line

Best: reply in the same thread. Find the last email from the recruiter (the one that confirmed the interview time, for example) and press Reply. The subject becomes “Re: Interview for Data Analyst”, and the recruiter sees the whole conversation above your message without searching for it.

If you must start a new email, put the role and the interview date in the subject, so it can be found and understood without opening it:

• Data Analyst interview on 14 October: next steps?
• Following up: Product Designer interview, 3 October
• Backend Engineer final round: update and a question about timing
• Offer deadline: Data Analyst application (only when you really have one)

Avoid a subject that only says “Checking in” or “Follow-up”. It says nothing about which job, and a recruiter with forty open roles has to open it to find out.

Six emails to copy

Change the parts in brackets. Keep the length; these are short on purpose.

1. They gave a date and it has passed

Hi [Name],

You mentioned I might hear about the [role] position by [day]. I wanted to check whether there is an update, or a new date I should expect.

I’m still very interested, and happy to send anything else you need.

Thanks,
[Your name]

This is the easiest follow-up to send. You are not asking for a favour; you are asking about a date they gave you.

2. No date was given, about a week later

Hi [Name],

Thank you again for the interview on [date] for the [role] position. I wanted to ask whether there is any news on the next step, and when you expect to decide.

I enjoyed hearing about [one specific thing from the interview] and would be glad to help with it.

Best regards,
[Your name]

3. After the final round

Hi [Name],

Thank you for arranging the final interviews on [date]. Meeting [names or team] made me even more keen on the role, especially [one specific thing].

Could you let me know where things stand and when a decision is likely? If references would help, I can send them today.

Best regards,
[Your name]

Offering references is useful at this stage: it is often the last thing they need, and it shows you are ready.

4. You have another offer with a deadline

Hi [Name],

I wanted to let you know that I have received another offer, and I need to answer it by [date]. [Company] is my first choice, so before I decide I wanted to ask whether you expect to make a decision on the [role] position before then.

I understand if the timing does not work. Thank you either way.

Best regards,
[Your name]

Send this only if the offer is real, and give the real deadline. Companies sometimes speed up when they know about a deadline, and sometimes they cannot. Either way, you get an answer you can plan around. Never invent an offer to push them: recruiters talk to each other, and the lie is easy to find.

5. The second (and last) follow-up

Hi [Name],

I’m following up once more on the [role] position. If the role has been filled or the process has changed, I would be grateful for a short note so I can plan.

Thank you,
[Your name]

Asking them to tell you “if it has been filled” makes it easy to reply. Saying no in one line is easier for a busy person than writing a careful update.

6. They told you the process is on hold

Hi [Name],

Thank you for letting me know the [role] position is on hold. I’m still interested if it opens again. Would it be all right if I checked in with you in [about a month / at the start of next quarter]?

Best regards,
[Your name]

Then put that date in your calendar and follow up once, on that date.

What not to write

• No guilt. “I haven’t heard anything, which is disappointing” makes the reader defensive. Ask a question instead.
• No “just following up” with nothing else. Say which role, which interview, and what you are asking.
• No “did I get it?”. Ask about the next step and the timing. If the answer is no, they will tell you.
• No long new pitch. You already had the interview. One specific sentence is enough.
• No messages in several places at once. One email, then wait.

When to stop

After two follow-ups with no answer, stop writing. It does not mean you did something wrong; many companies never send a rejection at all. Mark the application as “no reply” in your list, so you are not still waiting for it next month, and spend the time on the next one.

If a rejection does arrive, our guide on how to respond to a job rejection email has a short reply that keeps the door open. For following up before an interview, when you have only applied, read how to follow up on a job application.

Keep track of who you wrote to and when

When you have several interviews going, it is easy to forget whether you already followed up, and to send the same email twice or not at all. Write down, for each job: the date of each interview, the date they said they would decide, and the date of each follow-up. A job application tracker works for this; so does ApplyKoala, which keeps the interview dates and your notes next to each job.

Questions

Can a follow-up email hurt my chances? A short, polite one sent after a reasonable wait is a normal part of hiring and will not count against you. What can hurt is sending many messages, in several places, after only a day or two.

Should I follow up by phone instead? Email is better for most roles. The recruiter can answer when they have the information, and there is a record of what was said. Call only if they have been talking to you by phone all along.

Should I follow up on LinkedIn? Only if that is how you and the recruiter have been talking. Otherwise use email, and do not send both.

What if I think the interview went badly? Follow up anyway, on the same timetable. People often judge their own interviews more harshly than the interviewers did. If there is one answer you want to fix, the thank you email on the day is the place to do it, not the follow-up.

How long do companies usually take to decide? It varies a lot by company, role and country, from a few days to several weeks. That is why the best timing comes from asking them at the end of the interview.

Everything here works on paper. If you would rather not keep the paper,the app does this bit — paste a posting and it fills in the details, and it all stays on your own computer.