Top Software Engineer Interview Questions & Answers | Arc

Depending on how many rounds of interviews you’ve gone through, you may feel differently about how close you are to getting the job. The closer you get to the end of the hiring process, the more likely it is for you to start feeling anxious due to higher expectations. As a result, you may be eager to follow up with the hiring manager regarding your interview results. With that said, there’s a fine line between showing your eager attitude and coming off as desperate.

Before we get to the types of follow up emails you should send out, make sure to ask the hiring manager about when you can expect to hear back from them about next steps. This information will help you decide when it’s appropriate to follow up down the line.

There are four types of follow up emails you should send at different times after the interview: Thank you email, checking-in email, second follow up email, final follow up email.

Thank you email

A thank you email should be sent out on the same day of the interview or one day after your interview. The main purpose of this email is to show your excitement and appreciation. This email should be short and sweet and should include:

• A thank you note for their time
• A brief mention of the specific job you interviewed for
• A brief note of what you found most impressive about the company
• One or two things you learned about the organization
• One sentence about how you’re excited you are to contribute in a specific way

An example email could look like this:

Hi Josephine,

Thank you for taking the time out to speak to me yesterday — I throughly enjoyed discussing the frontend engineer role with you. I found XYZ Co.’s energetic and proactive culture both admirable and compatible with my own work ethics.

I especially enjoyed talking about creating the best user experience by collaborating with backend engineers, UX designers, and product managers. Over the years, I’ve worked with many engineers, designers, and product managers to deliver high quality web experiences. I believe my full-stack engineering abilities and diverse experience in the industry would help me succeed in improving XYZ Co’s products and services.

I’m excited about the prospect of bringing my skill set to XYZ Co. If you need any further information, please feel free to contact me by email or phone.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Jennifer Fu
888-888-8888
[email protected]

Checking-in email

If the hiring manager hasn’t gotten back to you on the date they said they would, don’t panic — they probably still have some internal discussions to do and some decisions to make. Wait at least one to two weeks to send the check-in email.

The check-in email should be around 3-5 sentences at most:

• Include the job title you interviewed for in the subject line
• Indicate your interest without sounding too desperate
• Make it clear that you’re looking for an update
• Offer to provide more information if they need it

Here’s an example email:

Subject line: Checking in RE: Fullstack Engineer Role

Hi Ruby,

I hope this email finds you well. I’m checking in on the Fullstack Engineer role I interviewed for on February 20th, 2021. I had a great time chatting with the team and am looking forward to your update. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can provide to help in the decision-making process.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you,

Jennifer Fu
888-888-8888
[email protected]

Second follow up email

If the hiring manager responded to your checking-in email and notified you that a final decision hasn’t been made, you could respond with a message that let’s them know that you may follow up again.

Here is a sample email you could send to the hiring manager:

Hi Michael,

Thank you very much for the update. I’d love to get an idea of when a final decision might be made, and when I could check in again. I’m still very much interested in this role and I know the interview process can take some time, so please let me know when would be an appropriate time to follow up again.

Thank you,

Jennifer Fu
888-888-8888
[email protected]

If the hiring manager didn’t respond to your initial follow-up email, send a second email to the same person after a week or two. Simply respond to the original follow-up email to help the hiring manager keep track of each applicant.

Here’s what you can say:

Hi Gary,

This is Jennifer, and I just wanted to follow up on my previous email. I was wondering if you have any updates to share regarding the Backend Engineer position I interviewed for? Please let me know when you have time if I am still being considered for the role.

Thank you!

If you don’t receive a response in three to four days, you might want to try emailing someone else in the company you spoke to. However, you want to be careful with this because some hiring managers may be offended if you skip over them in the recruiting process.

Final follow up email

If you successfully land the job, congratulations! However, if you were denied the offer, you can still send a final follow up email to ask for feedback and to maintain your professional network. You never know if maintaining a good relationship with the hiring manager would help you land a job in the company at a later time or lead to other job opportunities!

Here’s an example of what you email might look like:

Hi Philip,

While I am disappointed that I did not get an offer for the Backend Engineer role, I really enjoyed our conversation and am impressed with the work that XYZ inc. does. I would appreciate it if you could give me some feedback on my interview, just so I can present myself better in the future.

Additionally, I would love to stay connected with you so I just sent you an invite to connect on LinkedIn. Hopefully some time down the line I will have the opportunity to work with you and the team!

Best,

Jennifer