Follow-Up Email After an Interview: Examples and Tips

Sending a follow-up email after an interview is a small step on the job interview journey, but this gesture can be the deciding factor when the race is tight.

“A great thank you letter can truly be the difference between a job offer and not. If there’s two strong candidates that they’re thinking about, and they can’t choose which one, but one of them follows up with a genuine thank you letter, that could be the difference between a job offer and not,” said Sara Hutchison, CEO and executive career consultant at Get Your Best Resume.

Such weight can make every small detail feel fraught. To get a sense of best practices, we talked to veteran recruiters, hiring managers and career coaches about the dos and don’ts — and whens and hows — of writing a follow-up email after an interview.

How to Write a Follow-Up Email After an Interview

From the start, the basics to have in your follow-up email after an interview include:

• Thank the interviewer for taking the time to meet with you and for going over the job position.
• Reiterate the skills, strengths and abilities you can bring to the job.
• Refer to a specific instance or topic brought up in the interview to remind them of the conversation. 

With that in mind, here are some more tips for formatting the email.

1. Write a Simple Subject Line 

Keep the subject line simple. Here are a few recommendations from the experts:

• Thank you for your time today/yesterday.
• Thank you for the opportunity.
• Thanks for the opportunity ([Title of job interviewing for]).
• Follow-up ([Title of job interviewing for])

“It doesn’t have to be complicated or witty. Just your name and the date of the interview will do just fine,” said Tina Hawk, former senior vice president of human resources at Inflection. 

2. Keep Your Follow-Up Email Concise

Ravi Raman, executive career coach for technology leaders, recommends your follow-up should be concise and hit three key points: thank the recruiter or hiring manager for their time and the opportunity, reiterate interest in the role and express confidence that one’s skill set fits with the position and with the overall department and company goals.

Two paragraphs is more than enough according to experts. One paragraph is sufficient, unless the interviewer, say, left the candidate with a question to consider and follow up on.

3. Personalize Your Message With Concrete Details 

Writing a follow-up email can follow a formula, but you absolutely must customize the content for each interviewer and add personal details from your conversations.

Reference something interesting that came up during the interview or some new, pertinent-to-the-job piece of information that you learned since the last conversation. For example, it can help to describe how your interest increased after learning something specific about the role during the interview or from one of the questions you may ask during the meeting. 

“Try to tailor each thank you email to the specific interviewer. Do not send the same thank you letter to the recruiter, hiring manager and CEO,” Hawk said. “If you had a test or demonstration as part of your interview process, make sure to reference that in your thank you. A simple ‘thank you for the opportunity to demonstrate x, y, z’ allows you to once again highlight your skill sets.”

4. Use a Professional Tone

Maintain a professional tone and style of writing in your follow-up email, even if the company’s culture and interview itself appear more casual.

For example, use proper capitalization and punctuation even if the people you correspond with do not, and opt for using a formal sign-off to finish the email.

“Be professional and courteous, and be direct and clear in your communication. You want to come off as thoughtful, kind and enthusiastic. ‘Wow’ the employer,” Hawk said.

5. Include Additional Information and Corrections When Appropriate

If you forgot to mention something crucial to your candidacy in the interview, the follow-up email can serve as an opportunity to share that information. 

Too much self-reconsideration could come off as desperate, but there are times when correcting yourself makes sense. For technical interviews in particular, demonstrating applied knowledge after flubbing one or more questions might help overcome missed points, Khine said.

You can research your error, write up the correct answer or code, post it to a blog and drop a quick link in the follow-up email. Rather than appear unconfident, it’ll show initiative, an eagerness to learn new material, a willingness to own mistakes and a genuine interest in the role.

“Always follow up, always be prompt, and just assume the best — even if you feel like you bombed, because you just don’t know,” Raman said.

6. Close Professionally and Note Possible Next Steps

Be sure to end your follow-up email on a succinct note. “Close with a simple ‘looking forward to hearing from you,’ then a ‘thank you,’ followed by your full name,” Hawk said. “You might also add that you welcome any additional questions.”

At the end of the email, you can also finalize details about upcoming parts of the process.

“Close the email with your appreciation and by calling out next steps. For example, if they mentioned you are moving forward in the interview process, provide your availability for the next interview,” said Lauren Stempel, vice president of recruiting, West, at B​​etts.

Lily Valentin, former head of operations for North America at Adzuna, recommends linking your LinkedIn profile in your signature and making sure you have the correct contact information for yourself included.

7. Proofread Your Writing

Check for misspelled words and names, and ensure you’re using the right job title in the email. Spelling errors might seem impossible, but it does happen, especially if a candidate has gone through many interviews with various prospects.

“Proofread your emails. It is so much worse to send an email with a typo or to the wrong person,” said Georgina Salamy, director of talent acquisition and insight at Zoox.

8. Avoid Unnecessary Punctuation 

The number of exclamation marks is unlikely to make or break your candidacy, but be conservative with them in your email and keep them out of your subject line altogether.

“It’s probably the same rule of thumb, I would say, for any professional email correspondence,” said Mollie Khine, senior director of student success and outcomes at Flatiron School. “You don’t want to use more than a handful of exclamation points or anything to that effect.”

Interview Follow-Up Email Examples

Here are a few follow-up email examples provided by experts for reference. Use these for inspiration, but you should make sure to completely rewrite and customize your email based on your own interview experience.

1. Traditional Follow-Up Email

As suggested by Erin Brown, associate director of graduate student career services at UCLA, the UCLA Career Center shares with its students an example of a traditional follow-up letter:

Dear Ms. Lastname:

 

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet with you and discuss the Financial Analyst position. I enjoyed speaking with you and learning more about Wealth Management Fictitious Name and your department. [Insert something specific you learned during the interview that particularly interested or excited you.]

 

My enthusiasm for the position and interest for working for Wealth Management Fictitious Name were greatly strengthened as a result of our interview. I am confident that my academic background and work experience provide a good fit with your requirements of the job. I can tell that those are qualities you value in an employee and I believe I have demonstrated those through [insert a brief recap of an accomplishment or experience you discussed during the interview].

 

Please feel free to contact me at (555) 555-5555 or by email to [email protected] if you would like me to provide you with any additional information. Thank you again for the interview and your consideration.

2. Personalized Follow-Up Email 

Here’s a highly personalized example from David Wiacek, career and interview coach and founder of The Career Fixer:

Hi Juan,

 

I recognize that this is the high-volume season for your company, so I greatly appreciate that you took a half hour out of your busy day yesterday to speak with me. Beyond our mutual obsession over “Squid Game” (I heard just today that they greenlit season 2!), I felt that you and I aligned deeply over these core values: [xyz]. As I mentioned, I am being quite selective in my job search and want to make sure that the fit is right for my skills and passions. Additionally, it’s of great importance that my next job be challenging, not dull. I am confident, based on the roadmap you painted yesterday, that the path ahead is equal parts challenging and exciting—and I would be thrilled to share my energy with you and the rest of the [Company name] team.

3. Follow-Up Email After No Response

Here’s an example of a follow-up you can send if you haven’t heard anything from the recruiter or hiring manager after the final interview.

Hello First Name,

 

Thank you again for taking time to meet with me on [date] about [position] at [Company]. I am reaching out to see if there are any updates regarding the hiring decision for this role. Any information you can provide would be appreciated.

 

[Express your continued interest and reiterate why you think you would be the right choice for the role in a sentence.] Thank you again for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.

More on Interview PrepThe Best Way to Answer ‘Why Should We Hire You?’

When to Send Follow-Up Emails

Send a follow-up email within 24 hours of the interview. This applies whether you’re following up from a phone interview, the first round of in-person interviews or subsequent rounds.

“Doing so shows the employer that you appreciate their time and are interested in the role,” said Chantal Grindle, former chief human resources officer at Bold Commerce. 

Additionally, wait five business days or one week after an interview if you haven’t heard anything before sending a second follow-up email. If three follow-ups, reasonably spaced so as to not overwhelm, still fail to net a reply, cut your losses and assume the company has gone another direction, said Ryan Brown, director of HR practice at Hirewell.

“There’s a balance of wanting to come across as showing initiative, but also you don’t want to be a pest,” said Hutchison.

More on Job InterviewsTackling the ‘How Would You Describe Yourself?’ Interview Question

Should You Write a Follow-Up Email After a Phone Interview?

When it comes to phone interviews, sending a follow-up email after the interview remains a must for candidates. Follow the same tips and steps for writing a follow-up email after an in-person or virtual interview:

• Thank the interviewer for their time
• Express your interest in the position
• Rehash some of your strong suits
• Reference specific details of your conversation
• Close with a short ending and potential next steps

Even if the phone interview is a simple screening call, interviewers will appreciate you showing gratitude and thoughtfulness in a follow-up email. Demonstrating these positive traits may help you establish yourself as a top candidate in the interview process. But don’t get overly creative — the place to really stand out is in the interview, not in the follow-up email.

“The reason an organization hires you is because you’re authentically you, and you have the right experience,” Ryan Brown said. “So don’t put too much thought or pressure into this component.” 

Frequently Asked Questions