Cover Letter Series: Part Four - Follow-Up

When you send out your resume and cover letter, waiting to hear from a potential employer can be agonizing.  Instead of waiting, should you reach out to them to find out what's going on?

The answer can get complicated and it will depend on the situation.

Sometimes an employer will state in the job posting that they do not want to be contacted about the job.  This usually means that any contact other than submitting your application is not wanted.

Even though it can be hard to wait, resist the temptation to reach out to them too soon.  Remember, the job market isn't what it used to be.  There are many more people who are unemployed and employers are inundated with job applications.  It can take them a considerable amount of time to review all that they've received.  If you "bug" them too early about what's going on, you could risk getting noticed for the wrong reasons.

A good rule of thumb is to wait at least two weeks after you've submitted your application to reach out to anyone.  If the job had an application deadline, you will want to wait until two weeks after that deadline no matter when you submitted your application.

A quick email inquiry at this point should not hurt your chances.  You will just want to mention that you're still interested in the job and that you want to make sure they got your application.  Do NOT ask when you can meet for an interview or when interviews will start being scheduled. 

Being pushy or impatient will tag you as unprofessional and may result in getting your application denied.  Try to occupy your time by submitting other applications or other productive tasks so your main focus is on moving forward no matter what the outcome of one application will be.

Next week we will go over the interview process and how to prepare for them.

Please let us know if there's any other subjects you'd like for us to cover in the comments section below.