It feels wonderful to submit a job application, but it feels even better to hear back after applying from the employer! Unfortunately, as time goes by and you don’t hear back, your anxiety grows and you start to wonder if you’ll ever hear back.
Learn how long it takes to hear back after sending out a resume in this article, as well as what you can do to increase your chances of hearing back quickly.
Let’s get going…
How Long Does it Take to Hear Back After Applying for a Job?
After submitting a job application, you usually don’t hear back for one to two weeks. If the project is urgent or the company is small and effective, they might answer more quickly. An employer’s response time to a job application or resume submission might occasionally be delayed.
It is feasible to wait three or four weeks and yet receive good news from the company. This may have occurred because the employer was preoccupied with other business goals, was developing a new hiring budget at the beginning of the year, had a few important employees on vacation, and couldn’t conduct an interview with you, or for a variety of other reasons.
This isn’t especially typical, though. I advise you to presume the business won’t call after two weeks. You can then concentrate on submitting applications for more employment and networking with other firms.
You can also follow up if you want to. especially if you were qualified for the job or had strong reasons why you wanted it.
In general, I advise against responding to every job application. (However, I do suggest that you follow up with each interview.) After two weeks, you can choose which applications you want to check on.
An overview of how long it takes to hear back from a job is as follows: Within two weeks of sending your resume, you should hear back if an employer is interested. Depending on the employer’s priorities at the time of your application, it might take less time or even longer.
What to do When You’re Waiting to Hear Back About a Job
The single most crucial action to take while waiting for a response on a job application is to keep applying to other positions. Waiting for a single employer would simply make you more anxious and limit your possibilities in the job search, which could prolong your unemployment.
For each position, employers typically interview 6–10 applicants. Additionally, they routinely modify their search criteria in the middle of it, decide to promote someone internally, put jobs on hold, etc.
The key message is that waiting for a single employer after applying for a job is perilous since there are too many unpredictable variables in the job search.
In fact, you should CONTINUE looking for jobs even if you recently had an interview and are confident that it went well.
My guideline is to keep applying until you have accepted a job offer and determined an entry date. Most job seekers fail to accomplish this, which causes their search to drag on for weeks or months longer than it should.
Therefore, the number one thing to avoid doing while you’re awaiting feedback on a job application is to stop applying, sit tensely by your phone or email, and leave your future in the hands of one particular employer. That is a surefire prescription for failure and even catastrophe.
How to Get Responses Faster After Submitting Your Resume
We talked about what to do while you’re waiting to hear back from a firm and how long it takes to hear back from a job after you apply.
I’ll now give you a few tips on how to increase your chances of hearing back and reduce the amount of time you have to wait!
First, be careful to polish and adjust your CV for each position you apply for.
Employers get a lot of resumes, so if they think you’re a good fit for their requirements, they’re more likely to respond (and respond quickly).
When you apply, that’s what employers are thinking. “Can this person fill this position and succeed? And how long will it take them to catch up?
Making your CV specific will demonstrate to them that you are prepared to succeed.
How can you determine what they specifically need? The best place to start is with the job description.
Next, try using your network to get introduced to employers. The fundamentals of networking for a job are explained in this article.
In order to learn more about who they know and what they know, you should speak with your current network (like hiring managers, specific companies who are hiring, etc.)
Additionally, think about making new connections on LinkedIn or in other places.
Begin with a simple query, such as, “Hey Raj. You joined IBM, I noticed, two years ago. Since joining, how have you found the working environment?“
By doing so, you might be able to establish some rapport and trust and ask for a manager’s introduction.
That being said, there are two efficient strategies to increase the total response rate and decrease the average wait time after applying for a job.
The #1 Factor in Whether You Hear Back: Your Resume Writing
To sum up, I just want to be clear that if you want more interviews, your CV should be your primary concern. Yes, there are additional aspects. In my paper, I go into further detail about the main causes of joblessness.
However, the purpose of your resume is to secure an interview invitation.
Therefore, if you’re applying to plenty of jobs but getting no responses, it may be because your CV isn’t very strong (yet).
Fortunately, based on my expertise as a recruiter, I’ve created a few useful techniques you can utilize to swiftly improve your resume. The sources I suggest beginning with are listed below:
Write excellent job history and bullet points for your resume.
Instead of including an objective on your resume, include a concise statement.
Here are 11 resume blunders you should avoid.
That should provide you with a solid basis and cover the most important areas that hiring managers and recruiters first glance at!
This page offers more than 100 free articles on how to improve your resume and land more interviews if you need additional assistance.
Why Does it Take So Long to Hear Back from a Job Application?
Due to the volume of applications businesses receive and the hiring managers’ other commitments during a given week, it often takes a while for applicants to hear back.
For instance, a hiring manager may also oversee their current staff, conduct employee meetings, develop new departmental goals and activities, etc.
Therefore, while finding a job could be your top priority, a manager’s top priority during a given week may not always be hiring; it may instead be one of many.
Although recruiters frequently fill numerous positions, they don’t have all of these additional duties, and it can take them a few days or longer to sort through the large number of applications they receive.
Conclusion
You are now aware of the timeframes involved in receiving a response to a resume (on average). Additionally, while it will always take some time for employers to review your application and react, you can speed up the process by personalizing your resume and making connections with hiring managers through networking.
I discussed these suggestions in detail in the article above, so if you went to the bottom and skimmed much of it, I’d suggest looking again.
Additionally, using the time to generally enhance your resume More than anything else, your most crucial resume sections (like your career history, bullet points, and summary paragraph) will increase the number of interviews you receive.