Years ago when you would apply for a job, you’d be asked to mail in your resume. Today, that’s not the case. Most employers today will request that you email your resume and you so you do with your fingers crossed that the resume gets to the right person and that you’ll hear from them soon. Yet, with employers being able to post jobs all over the Internet, the pool of applicants has increased so much that you can’t trust that someone will get back to you about your resume. You need to be proactive and follow-up on your resume.

Resume Follow-Up Advice

After you submit your resume, it’s a good idea to wait two weeks. If you don’t hear anything after the two-week period, you need to take the initiative to follow-up with the company. Most companies will prefer that you contact them via email, but you can also send a written letter or call them. However, be sure you know how they want to be contacted. Some job ads will state that they do not want any phone calls at all.

Take a couple of minutes to do some research online if the company has a website. You may be able to locate the best phone number to call and even better, the actual name of the person hiring. If a contact is not listed in the job posting and there is no contact to be found on the website, feel free to call, if the ad doesn’t state otherwise, for the name of the hiring manager or human resource employee handling the hiring for the position.

Once you make contact, ask the hiring manager what the next steps are in the recruiting process and find out if they need any additional information about your resume. This is a great opportunity for you to sell yourself and pique the hiring manager’s interest.

You can also request to schedule an informational interview. An informational interview helps you learn more about the company and the job. You can really learn a lot about how the company operates and if you’ll fit in well with their culture. Setting up an informational interview also shows the prospective employer that you’re very interested in the position and could help you land an interview.

Following up on your resume can never hurt. It helps you make a good impression on potential employers, and prove to them just how interested you are in the position applied for. In any follow-up communications, keep a positive and polite attitude so that you leave them with a good impression even if they don’t end up offering you the job.