No Response After an Interview? A Guide To Follow Up By Email

September 26, 2025

Most companies know that they need to respond to all candidates after an interview, but there are some instances when this might not happen. This is known as ghosting, and it’s happening more and more in 2025 as communication rules are becoming more relaxed.

It’s worth noting that ghosting can happen both ways. Employers are disappearing on candidates, sometimes after multiple rounds of interviews. Candidates are also ghosting employers, sometimes not showing up for jobs they have been offered and accepted.

For the candidate, this can be very confusing. You spend all that time preparing for the interview, so when you get nothing but silence, it can be disheartening and demotivating. And for companies, it can be a serious spanner in the works when you’ve made plans to start onboarding a candidate and they simply don’t show up.

Knowing what to do in the face of an employer ghosting you during the application process is an essential skill for candidates. First we need to understand why it happens, if there is anything you can do to turn silence into insight, and finally, how to move forward with grace and professionalism so that you don’t harm your chances of being hired elsewhere.

Before you let a lack of response knock your confidence, you should always follow up with the company to confirm what is happening. It could be that there is a simple explanation, so don’t give up on the role just yet. Here’s our guide to following up after an interview if you’ve had no response.

Why do companies ghost candidates?

Sometimes, you haven’t been ghosted, you’re simply in the middle of an interview process that is slower than you might like. Companies are becoming more precious about who they hire, so they might move quickly in the beginning, and then hit the brakes when the time comes to make a final decision.

It’s not ideal, but before you assume the worst, always follow up with the company to check if they are still considering your application. It could be that they have decided to conduct another round of interviews to broaden their search, or a previously unavailable candidate might have made themselves available again.

In the absence of concrete information about what is happening, try not to assume the worst. It might not be best practice from the company to take so long and leave candidates wondering what is happening, but you don’t want to harm your chances by sending a rude follow-up email.

If a company has ghosted your application, there is a good chance they aren’t planning to follow up with you. This can be incredibly disheartening for applicants, but try to remain positive. It’s often nothing to do with your application, and often comes down to the organisation’s readiness to hire. They might have hit the breaks on recruitment due to an unexpected business downturn, and they might lack the resources or training to know that they need to inform candidates. 

How can you reduce the chance of no response?

The simplest way to make sure you know the next steps in the interview process is to ask. When you are given the chance to ask questions in an interview, always ask what you can expect in the next stages. This will help you to plan accordingly.

So, if the panel says that the next stage will be to inform the candidates after the weekend and you haven’t heard anything by Tuesday evening, you know it’s time to take action.

Asking this question also sets an expectation in the mind of the interviewer. They know that you are awaiting the next steps, and they have also set expectations. The ball is in their court to honour this communication deadline. It also gives you a framework for when you can follow up.

What does no response mean?

No response doesn’t always indicate bad news, so it’s important to remain professional and courteous. Sending a rude email after not getting a response about the outcome of your interview could quickly backfire. The same goes for heading to social media to badmouth the company.

If the panel needed a little more time to consider, your rude email or LinkedIn post could help them to rule you out as a potential candidate. These are some of the most common reasons hiring managers don’t respond after an interview:

• They have hit the brakes on hiring. Sometimes they have to hit the brakes on hiring for a new role. This can be annoying, particularly if you spent a lot of time preparing for the interview, but it does happen. It’s important to remain polite in this situation as the hiring process could start up again in the future.
• They have offered the role to another candidate. It’s not uncommon for hiring managers to wait until the role has been accepted and they have finalised the contracts before letting other candidates know they are unsuccessful. There is always the chance that something could fall through – such as the successful candidate receiving a negative reference – so keep things polite and courteous, as you might be their second choice.
• They simply need more time to decide. Hiring new people takes time, and sometimes hiring managers are also doing other jobs, so they don’t have time to devote to finding the right candidates. Again, it’s important to remain polite so that you don’t rule yourself out.
• They simply don’t respond to unsuccessful candidates. It’s not ideal, but some hiring managers focus on the successful candidates and ignore the rest. While this might feel incredibly rude, it’s important not to have a similarly rude response. Stay courteous and polite so that you don’t ruin your chances with the company in the future.
• They forgot. If you interviewed with a small company, there is always the chance that this task slipped through the cracks. While it isn’t ideal, it can happen, so try not to be too perturbed by this fact. 

How to follow up by email

If you haven’t received any response and you have waited a reasonable amount of time, it would be perfectly acceptable to follow up by email. Remember to keep it polite and simply ask for an update on the status of your application. These are a few things you should include in your email to make sure you remain professional but also prompt a response.

• Start by reiterating your interest in the role.
• Ask for an update on the status of your application.
• Consider asking for feedback on your interview performance.
• Thank them for their time.

You don’t need to second-guess their reasons for not responding or speculate on what has happened. You can simply request an update and then wait for their response. Your email might look like this:

“Dear Sir or Madam, 

Thank you for your time on Wednesday 15th June, it was great to hear more about your company and the role available. I am just writing to check if there has been any update on the status of my application? I am very interested in the role and would love to hear more. If you have any feedback on my interview performance, that would also be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Your Name”

If you still don’t receive a response after sending this email, it might be best to assume that they won’t be responding and move on. It can be difficult to do this, but it is important to remember that there are other companies out there who would love to have you as their employee.

Communication through other channels

Hiring in 2025 has become much more relaxed, with some hiring managers reaching out to candidates in less formal ways such as LinkedIn and WhatsApp messages. This can hugely impact the role of communication in the recruitment process, as it makes it more informal.

You might follow up with a short message such as: “Hello, just following up on the status of my application. Looking forward to hearing from you.” This is all that needs to be said, and repeat messages won’t help to deliver any further clarity. 

If you have been communicating through these channels on the run up to your interview, you can continue to follow up using these channels after the interview. However, this can add an additional layer of mistrust, as it may show you when messages have been seen but not responded to.

While the communication channel might be informal, you should always aim to maintain a sense of professionalism at all times. Multiple messages in a row or rude messages should always be avoided, as this could damage your position. 

While you might feel you have a direct line of communication with the hiring manager, bear in mind that they might not be ready to communicate with you yet. An example of this would be when the role has been offered to another candidate, but that candidate has changed the goal posts by demanding more money than the company can offer.

The hiring manager cannot communicate this with you, so they will go silent until the next steps have been decided. If you respond to this with a rude message or multiple messages demanding a response, you can be confident you’ll no longer be their second choice if the offer to the first choice candidate falls through.

How to move on from no response

Going through the interview process and then hearing nothing can be an emotionally intense experience. You might be feeling hurt that you dedicated time to the process and showed so much enthusiasm, only to be ignored. It’s also common to feel a certain amount of anger at the company; after all, this is a very rude way to handle this issue.

The best thing you can do for your career and for your own peace of mind is to not make it about you. Essentially, you have dodged a bullet, and a company that treats candidates this poorly is unlikely to treat their employees any better.

Keep your grievances off social media, even if you decide to complain about them without mentioning the name of the company. Hiring managers might see public complaints as an aggressive move, which could influence how they approach your application.

There is also the chance that wires have been crossed and the responsibility for getting back to candidates fell between the cracks. It’s not ideal, but mistakes do happen, and the company might come back to you at a later date to apologise. If you want to keep the door open for future opportunities, always keep your communication polite and professional.

Also bear in mind that people within these organisations might move around, and you don’t want your name to be associated with a rude outburst. 

Want help staying on the radar after an interview? Let CMD Recruitment coach your job search or help you land your next opportunity—get in touch or check our live roles today.