Write a Good Follow Up Email

Check out our article with tips to write a good follow up email after the interview.

Why is a follow-up email after the interview important?

Interviews are often considered the most important part of the job application process. During these sessions, you can showcase your technical skills, wow them with your personality, and learn more about the company from your potential future coworkers. As you talk to recruiters, hiring managers, and team members, you can highlight why you would make a good addition to the company.

Once the interview is over, you can sigh with relief, but you’re not off the clock yet. You should always send a follow-up email to each person who interviewed you in each round. This includes the recruiter on your phone screen and everyone you meet with in later interviews.

If you do not get their contact info during the conversation, that’s ok! Ask the recruiter or your contact at the company for their email addresses so you can send thank you notes. When you send a follow-up email after the interview, you show them you are polite, excited about the opportunity, and ready to work. See below for a template you can adapt.

Today, you can use AI tools like Career Connect to write the perfect email to recruiters for you. Every sentence of these AI emails are optimized based on job seeker data to get you an interview. However, these AI emails are designed to get you an interview, not follow up after one. If you’ve already interviewed, you can customize our follow up email examples.

First follow-up email to recruiter:

Hi [recruiter name]

Thank you so much for organizing the interviews today.

It was great to chat with [names of interviewers] and learn more about what they are each doing on [teams]. I am excited about the important work being done at [company] in the [space] and how my skills can help the teams accomplish their goals.

I’d like to email [interviewer names] to thank them for chatting with me. Can you please provide their email addresses?

Please let me know if you need anything else from my end. Looking forward to hopefully continuing along in the process.

Best,

[your name]

Next, you need to send emails to each of the people who interviewed you. You should send these emails directly after your sessions so the conversations are still fresh in their minds. When drafting those emails, keep these ideas in mind:

Be polite and friendly
Personalize the email by mentioning something specific to your conversation
Highlight your excitement and the impact you can make on the organization
Thank them for their time

Follow-up email template to the interviewer:

Hi [interviewer name],

Thank you for taking the time to chat with me today!

It was great learning more about your work at [company] and the [job title]. I especially enjoyed our conversation on [specific topic and how it relates to your experience], and I’m convinced this position is an excellent fit at this stage of my career. Any information about the next steps in the recruitment process would be greatly appreciated. Also, feel free to ask me any follow-up questions that may have arisen since we last spoke.

I’m looking forward to continuing on in the process with [company] and hope to meet more people on your team.

All the best,

[your name]

What to expect after sending a follow-up email

You likely will not receive a response from the team members and hiring managers that interviewed you. Not a problem. This email ensures that you give them a final good impression. It also acts as a final showcase of your soft skills, which may not come across in interviews. Strong communication, respect, and kindness are traits people look for in their future teammates and employees, so showcase those qualities in your emails.

If you feel like you might not have done as well as you could have in your technical interview, you can use the email follow-up to highlight what you would have done differently. You can say, “I was thinking more about the question you asked and I think [xyz] might have created a more optimal solution.” Recruiters do not see this a lot and are often impressed when they get follow-ups like this.

After you have sent a follow-up email to the recruiter, you should wait a week for a reply. If you do not receive one, you should follow up once more with a different email in the same thread. This is a polite reminder, as you know they are busy, but you want to check in on the status of your application. You can also use this email to mention other jobs you are interviewing with (in general terms) to let them know there is a time constraint on your end.

More information

Using these templates and being polite to the recruiters and interviewers will help maintain their positive impression of you. Adding specific elements from your conversations or technical questions will show that you are thoughtful and interested in the company and its work there.

With these tips & templates at your disposal, you should be ready to send great follow-up emails to recruiters and hiring managers.

Pathrise is a career accelerator that works with students and professionals 1-on-1 so they can land their dream job in tech. If you want to work with any of our advisors to get help with your cold emails or with any other aspect of the job search, become a Pathrise fellow.