What do I do when I hear nothing back after applying?
Assume no reply is the default and keep moving. Many applications are closed without a person reading them in full, and most rejections are never sent. One short follow-up after about ten working days is reasonable, but it rarely changes the outcome. The next application is a better use of the hour.
Why you hear nothing
Silence is administrative rather than personal. A posting with several hundred applicants gets a first pass measured in seconds per CV, and a large share are closed on a recruiter's search or filter without being read properly.
Rejections then go unsent because nobody is required to send them. Some applicant tracking systems will fire an automatic rejection, but plenty of companies turn that off or never configure it, so a decision made in week one reaches you as nothing at all.
What a follow-up actually does
A follow-up occasionally puts your name in front of a person, and almost never reverses a decision that has already been made. Treat it as a cheap lottery ticket, not a strategy.
Send one short note to the recruiter or hiring manager after roughly ten working days, restate in two lines why you match the role, and stop there. Repeated chasing is remembered, and not in your favour.
When the silence is telling you something
Record the reply rate rather than remembering individual rejections. It is the only way to tell a bad fortnight apart from an approach that is not working.
- Fewer than about one reply in twenty applications points at targeting or your CV, not at luck.
- Replies to some role types and silence on others means you are applying outside what your CV evidences.
- Interviews but no offers is a different problem entirely, and no amount of following up touches it.
How we do it
We read postings from company applicant tracking systems and record when each one first appeared, so you can apply in the first days rather than the third week, and see when a posting you applied to comes down.
Updated 2026-09-06