How do I follow up after an interview?

I see roughly half of candidates skip the follow-up email after interviews. That's a missed opportunity. The 24-hour follow-up is one of those small moves that disproportionately matters in close decisions — when two candidates are roughly comparable on the substance, the one who followed up thoughtfully often gets the offer.

What to write. Three sentences, max 80 words. First sentence: brief thanks for the time. Second: one specific thing from the conversation that resonated, ideally something that ties back to your fit for the role. Third: restated interest in moving forward. 'Hi [name], thank you for the time today. The conversation about how the platform team is rebuilding around event-driven architecture really crystallised why this role interests me — that's exactly the kind of work I've been wanting to do at scale. Looking forward to hearing about next steps.' That's the entire email.

What not to do. Don't write a paragraph. Don't recap your CV. Don't argue points where you felt the interview went badly ('I wanted to follow up on the question about distributed systems — what I meant to say was...'). Don't flatter ('what an incredible team you have'). Don't ask urgent questions ('when can I expect a decision?'). All of these reduce the signal of the follow-up rather than enhancing it.

Send it within 24 hours, ideally within 2-4 hours of the interview while you still remember specifics. If you wait three days, the follow-up reads as routine rather than engaged. If you send it within an hour, it can read as performative; aim for the same-day-but-not-immediate window.

Address it to the most senior person in the interview, copying anyone else who interviewed you in the same session. If you had a panel of four, one email addressed to the panel chair is fine. If you had a sequence of separate interviews across the day, a brief email to each is better than one long composite.

If you don't have email addresses for the interviewers, send the message via the recruiter and ask them to forward. Most recruiters do, immediately, because it makes them look organised to the hiring panel. 'Could you forward this to [interviewer names] when you get a chance? Thanks.' That's all.