Should I email?

[JengaTower124]

I recently applied for a job through a company’s website. After submitting my application, I received a confirmation message saying they would be in touch with all applicants, whether successful or not. Great I thought.

It’s now been nearly three weeks, and I haven’t heard anything. The role is a great fit for my skills and experience, and I’m really keen on the opportunity.

It’s a small company, so if I reach out, it would go to a general info email address.

I’m wondering if it would it be appropriate to send a polite follow-up email asking for an update? Or is it better to leave it and wait?

Would love to hear from anyone with recruitment experience—just want to make sure it wouldn’t come across the wrong way! I'm not sure if its frowned upon or would seem impatient.

That long after, they are either still interviewing, or you are the 2nd choice and they are waiting for the 1st choice to accept or refuse before they tell you. I'd guess.

Nothing wrong with asking for feedback to find out.

When was the closing date? We don't review any applications until we close so although it's been 3 weeks it may be that they've only just started to look through.

No close date has been posted.

They advertised 2 jobs on the same day and both are still being advertised.

If they're still being advertised, they won't have sifted the applications yet. The usual process is that a job is advertised for a certain amount of time, and then once that application period has closed they will look at all the applications at once and decide who to invite for an interview.

Where I used to work, we had to advertise for a month and you couldn’t accept or decline anyone until that period was over. It’s likely nobody’s even looked at your application yet.

I would never "reach out" to a company to chase up a job application, especially one where you haven't even made it to the interview stage yet. What good outcome could possibly come from telling them that they haven't done things to your schedule? At best you come across as desperate/pushy/irritating and at worst you're pointing out that they haven't done things fast enough for you (or that you think they've forgotten to do their jobs) which shows what you'll be like to work with.
You're not going to ever get a response like, "oh yeah we've completely forgotten that we're recruiting and OMG coincidence... you're the perfect fit!"

Bollox! If I advertise, I don't look at any applications until they're all in, (I.e when the ad closes). It can be as much as 6 weeks in some cases before I even start interviewing. It is ridiculous to just assume they've already interviewed and offered after just 3 weeks.

If there is no timeline or closing date listed (triple check the ad and any other published info) it won't harm to call to ask. The worst outcome is they'll either say they haven't started the sift or that you haven't been shortlisted the best is they see your keenness. It's never going to be frowned upon, I would word it that you're really interested and wanted to understand their timeline rather than whether you've been selected.

One final thing to check is if there is a line in the ad that says you should assume they're not interested if you don't hear after a certain time. Some companies include this in an attempt to not be part of benefit fraud, (where people claim to be job hunting but just spam applications to jobs they'll never get so they can show a series of reject letters as 'proof' they really are looking).

The advice here is dreadful. If you want something - get after it.

Email in and tell them why you really want to work for them and why you're a great fit for the role; be succinct and specific in your reasons, not a summary that they will see on your CV. Acknowledge that they may have already filled the role in which case you hope to be considered for future opportunities or that they may still be at the review applicants phase but you look forward to any feedback. Thank them for their time and say you hope your enthusiasm is not mistaken for being pushy.

Twenty years recruitment experience here and now a successful business owner.

To add to this, if the role is public sector, there's no point in sending in a detailed email about why you're great for the role. If run properly, public sector recruitment processes do not allow for information to be added to your application after submission.

In private sector recruitment, whilst it wouldn't necessarily bother me if you followed up with me, I'd wonder why the information about how great a fit you are isn't already in your original application and, if it is, why are you duplicating? I'd much prefer a polite enquiry about timescales than another sales pitch.

I have roughly the same amount of experience as @Goditsmemargaret (slightly more sadly, I'm old!) but disagree with some of what she says. What that tells you is there's no right and wrong. It's just different approaches and personal preference. I think to some extent it depends on sector - marketing people want candidates to go crazy and set themselves apart whereas an accountancy firm would see a salesy type follow up as irritating! 😂

My mind had read post interview, not just applied. I was going to delete.

Ha, in that case my response was quite aggressive then. 🤣 Sorry!