Recently applied for a job? If you’re like most people, you’re now anxiously waiting for a response — and wondering how much longer you’ll have to wait.

While response times can vary, you should generally expect to hear back from smaller companies sooner than larger ones. If you applied to a small company that’s urgently hiring and still haven’t heard back after a couple of weeks, it’s safe to say that you aren’t going to. On the other hand, it could easily take a couple of months to hear anything back from a larger company, simply because of the volume of applications and amount of red tape involved.

If you’re looking for concrete numbers, here are some common benchmarks for response times.

When you can expect to hear back about a job application

Average response times for small and medium-sized companies

After a job application: Smaller companies are usually fairly quick to respond. You should generally expect to wait about 2 weeks after applying for a response, but it’s not uncommon to hear back within a few days.

After an interview: The average response time after a phone screen or in-person interview is about 1-2 weeks. If you haven’t heard back after a couple of weeks, it may be time to reach out.

Average response times for large companies

After a job application: This could take anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 months. If you can, try to put your application out of your mind until at least this much time has elapsed.

After an interview: Once you make it to the interview stage, things should speed up a little. You will usually hear back about 2-4 weeks after an interview.

Outlying industries and other things to keep in mind

Note that these are the average response times to hear back after applying or interviewing for a job. Some industries, like academia, are notorious for long lead times — think months, not weeks. Others, like retail and food service, may turn around job applications in a matter of days or even hours, especially if they’re urgently hiring.

When in doubt, it’s best to inquire about the timeframe for hiring when you apply, especially if you get to the interview stage. These won’t always be accurate — it’s not uncommon for hiring to take a lot longer than initially predicted — but they should give you a general idea of when it’s okay to follow up.

What to do if you haven’t heard back from a job

If a reasonable amount of time has come and gone and you still haven’t heard back, here’s what to do next.

Improve your resume

If you applied online and haven’t heard back at all, it may be time to accept that your application was automatically rejected. If the company you applied to is using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), there’s a chance your resume never even made it to the hiring manager.

Since it’s usually not worth following up on an auto-rejection, the best thing to do now is to optimize your resume so it doesn’t happen again. Our AI-powered tools are designed to work like ATS, which means they can scan your resume and tell you exactly why you’re not hearing back from job applications.

Follow up with the hiring manager

The best way to find out what’s going on with your job application? Ask! If the deadline for next steps has come and gone and you still haven’t heard back, it’s okay to reach out to the hiring manager directly and ask about it. You may not hear back from this, either — especially if they’re swamped or have chosen to go in another direction — but at least you’ll have exhausted all your options.

Check out our email templates for how to follow up on a job application, including what to say after a job application, interview, or if you think you’ve been ghosted.

Check the job posting

If you’re still in the dark about how long you can expect to wait, it may be worth going back to check the job posting itself to see if there’s a timeframe listed. At the very least, you should make note of the closing date, since jobs with very long hiring windows may not have even finished receiving applications by the time you’re starting to panic.

If the job posting or other communications from the hiring manager list a specific date or estimated timeframe, it’s a good idea to wait until slightly more time has passed before following up. Reaching out before you’re told to expect a response may be seen as presumptuous or inattentive, which can reflect poorly on your candidacy.

Factors that can affect response times

Looking for a bit more insight into why it takes so long to hear back from a job application? Response times can vary based on:

• Company size. Smaller companies often have fewer people involved in hiring, which leads to a more streamlined process. On the other hand, larger companies tend to have more layers of bureaucracy and more complicated hierarchies, which may slow things down.
• Urgency. In general, the more urgently a company is hiring, the more quickly you can expect to hear back. Be aware that if a company is always urgently hiring, there may be a reason for this, so it’s worth doing a little digging before you accept an offer.
• Start date. If the proposed start date for the position is within a few weeks, you should generally expect to hear back fairly soon. On the other hand, if you’re applying for jobs that won’t start for several months, things may move a little more slowly.
• Volume of applicants. A large number of applicants can easily overwhelm even the biggest HR team, so be prepared to wait a little longer if you’re applying for popular positions, entry-level roles, or large-scale graduate schemes or other programs with hundreds of applicants.
• Job seniority. The hiring process tends to be slower for very senior roles, since it’s important for companies to find just the right fit.
• ATS screeners. ATS can help speed up the initial hiring process by filtering applications based on keyword matches. If you’re hearing back very quickly after applying, ATS is probably the reason.