How long after to follow up?

Getting there

Whats an appropriate length of time to wait before following up on a speculative application? Having heard nothing no PFO or anything I'm assuming they are either considering my offer of lil 'ol me or have binned it.

A week? Two weeks?

Also, do you think there is much value in internships? As in unpaid 2-3mth ones? Assuming I can afford to keep myself afloat, I have been considering doing one or two in the new year. I want to get a feel of different companies and different types of work but I'm afraid it would look like I was flaky for want of a better word. Or that I wasn't kept on for longer for a bad reason. Any insights?

Thanks!

chappy

Have you had an interview?

Eoin

How long ago did you apply, and was there a closing date?

Some places don't do anything until the closing date for applications has passed, and only then do they sort through the CVs. As you can imagine, they could be dealing with a huge amount.

RE: the internships - it sort of depends on what the alternative is. Are you doing them to up-skill until you find a permanent job? I think that would come across well to an interviewer. I think it would look better than having a gap in the CV anyway.

Getting there

Nope no interview. Although no closing date either because I sent it on the offchance there might be something available.

The company doesnt have a HR department so I sent it to the MD. Could that be my mstake?

RE: the internships. Yeah they would definelty be improving my 'soft' skills and other non-technical skills. See Im in science but dont want to work in labs/R&D any longer. Id like to see what else is out there really.

I would be leaving a parttime paid job to do an internship though, so Im trying to weigh up my options. Would I be more employable afterwards? I think I might be. Especially if I dont want to work in R&D anymore.

chappy

If you had no interview and were not responding to an advertised open position I would not be expecting any kind of reply to be honest.

When I am doing recruiting I would only contact people following an interview.There are 1000s of CVs going through the door of every person each week.All of these cannot receive responses

peasant

With sending applications on spec (i.e not in reply to an ad) I find it best to follow up straight away. In an ideal situation you want to be ringing the man as he opens your letter and before he bins it to give him a chance to connect your charming phone personality with the CV in front of him and (hopefully) create some interest.

If you're not up to that kind of hard sell / cold call tactics then just don't call at all and hope for the best.

Ringing weeks after sending an unsolicited application is a waste of time for you and him/her.

Getting there

Thanks!

I know it was a shot in the dark really but I keep reading about these stats like 70% of jobs are unadvertised so I'm trying this approach.

He would have received my letter mon/tues so Il try the call tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

darcy07

had an interview 2 weeks ago was expecting to hear back either yesterday or today should i email them ? and if so what way should i word it would rather email them today than tomorrow

Eoin

No, don't contact them if they're not even late getting back to you at this stage. Leave it till tomorrow at the earliest, or even Monday.

darcy07

ye but am i gone out of there thought process by next monday? loads interviewed for the role