Why following up is normal
A cold email lands in an inbox full of other mail. People mean to answer and forget, or the message goes to a folder they don't open until Friday. A short, polite follow-up is the ordinary way to bring it back to the top. What annoys people is not the follow-up but the third, fourth and fifth.
A schedule that respects their time
A follow-up schedule
| When | What to send | What it should do |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | Your first email | Introduce you, show one project, ask one small question |
| About day 4 | A follow-up in the same thread | Bring the first email back up, and offer an easier question |
| About day 10 | A last note | Close the loop politely and leave the door open |
| After that | Nothing | Move on. You can write to a different person at the same company, once |
Over a weekend or a public holiday, add a couple of days. Time the follow-up for a working day in their time zone.
What to write
- Reply in the same thread. The subject becomes "Re: ..." and they can see your first message below yours.
- Keep it to two or three short lines. The follow-up is not a second pitch.
- Make the ask lighter. If the first email asked whether the role is open, the follow-up can ask who else you should write to.
- Add something new only if you have it. A merged pull request, a new release of your project, a deadline that matters. If you have nothing new, don't invent it.
Subject: Re: Backend intern, built a rate limiter in Go
Hi Dana, Bumping this in case it got buried. If the Backend Intern role is closed, is there someone else on the team I should write to? Thanks, Alex
Subject: Re: Backend intern, built a rate limiter in Go
Hi Dana, Since I wrote, the limiter got a second contributor and a sliding-window mode (github.com/alexchen/limiter). If the Backend Intern role is still open, I'd be glad to send my resume. Thanks, Alex
Subject: Re: Backend intern, built a rate limiter in Go
Hi Dana, I'll stop writing here so I don't fill your inbox. If a backend internship opens up later, I'd be glad to hear about it. Thanks, Alex
What not to do
- "Just checking in" and nothing else. It gives them nothing to answer.
- Pointing out that they haven't replied. It reads as a guilt trip, and they may simply be busy.
- Following up daily. Past the second follow-up, you are asking them to say no.
- Moving to every other channel at once. An email, a LinkedIn message and a text on the same day feels like pressure.
- Sending the follow-up as a new thread. They lose the context.
When to write to someone else
After your last note, you can write once to a different person at the same company about the same role: a different recruiter, or an engineering manager on the team. Say plainly that you wrote to a colleague and haven't heard back. Don't turn it into a campaign.
Keep track so you don't forget
The hard part of following up is remembering to. Write down who you wrote to and when. The InternLaunch pipeline does this for you: it marks a message as sent when you open it in your mail app and tells you when the follow-up and the last note are due.
Frequently asked questions
- How long should I wait before following up on a cold email?
- About four days is a good default. Add a couple of days around a weekend or a holiday.
- Is it rude to follow up?
- No, as long as it is short, polite and happens once or twice. Following up many times is what causes irritation.
- How many follow-ups should I send?
- Two at most: one after about four days and a last note after about ten. Then stop.
- What if they reply that it isn't the right time?
- Thank them, ask whether you may write again in a few months, and put a reminder in your calendar. A graceful no often becomes a yes later.
- Should I follow up on LinkedIn instead of email?
- Stay in the same channel. If you did both from the start, keep both short. Switching channels after silence can feel like pressure.