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Negotiating job offers
It depends! Here are some email templates to help you find out.
by Josh Doody
You just finished an interview and you think it went pretty well. Or maybe it didn’t? You want to play it cool and wait to hear back, but you know the recruiter is probably busy with other candidates and you don’t want to fall through the cracks.
How long until you hear back? And how long should you wait to follow up if you don’t hear anything for a while?
It depends on the individual company. Some companies will interview the candidate and then immediately introduce them to a colleague for the next interview. Some companies will interview the candidate and their next interview won’t be until weeks later.
The best way to find out how long it will be between interviews is to ask your contact at the company (usually a recruiter). Here are two email templates you can use. Just swap any [bold text in brackets] with your own information and you’re good to go!
To: [Recruiter]
Subject: [Your name] interview—Thanks for your time!
Hi [Recruiter name]
Thanks so much for arranging my interview with [name of person who interviewed you] today. It was great to learn more about [company name], and about the [job title] role in particular. [Company name] sounds like a great company to work for!
If you talk with [him or her], please let [name of person who interviewed you] know I appreciate [his or her] time today.
If you need anything else from me, please let me know. Otherwise, I look forward to the next steps in our process!
All the best
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your preferred phone number]
How long should you wait to follow up again?
Some companies will let you know if they decide not to move forward with you, and some companies won’t. It’s difficult to know which you’re dealing with, so you may want to send one more follow-up email after about a week to make sure they haven’t forgotten about you.
To: [Recruiter]
Subject: [Your name] interview—Follow-up and next steps
Hi [Recruiter name]
It’s been about a week since I talked with [name of person who interviewed you], so I wanted to follow up to see if you need anything else from me. I’m also curious if you can give me a sense of our next steps and timing for the interview process.
Thanks for your time and I hope all is well!
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your preferred phone number]
You can ping the recruiter (or your contact) about once a week for a few weeks. If they don’t get back to you at all within about three weeks, they’ve probably decided not to move forward with you in the interview process.
Learn more Ready to learn how to negotiate your job offer?
How to negotiate salary: 9 tips from a pro salary negotiator
I'm Josh Doody, a professional salary negotiation coach who helps Senior Software Engineers and Engineering Managers negotiate job offers from big tech companies. On average, Software Engineers and Engineering Managers improve their first-year compensation by $47,273 with my help.
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