If you're wondering how quickly to respond to inquires from recruiters and hiring managers, a new study suggests the faster the better.

Researchers analyzed millions of interactions on Fiverr, an online platform connecting businesses with freelancers, and found the longer job seekers take to respond to inquiries from potential employers, the less likely they are to score the gig. A series of follow-up experiments with paid participants showed that people in general associate quick responses with overall competence-and that even those who say they don't expect fast replies still favor those who give them.

"The speed of reply sends a signal," says On Amir, a dean at UC San Diego's Rady School of Management and one of the study's co-authors.

There is a school of thought that says responding too quickly to interest from a potential employer could make job seekers seem desperate, reducing their chances of getting hired. This study found the opposite to be true: Playing hard to get with a hiring team seldom pays off, especially in an increasingly competitive job market.

"As perverse as it sounds, a desperate employee isn't bad for the employer," says Eric M. VanEpps, an associate professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University and another one of the researchers.

How we got here

The study relayed some surprising numbers: Even delays of five to 10 minutes in responding to a potential employer correlated with about a 30% reduction in Fiverr users' chances of getting the job.

Einav Hart, an assistant professor of management at George Mason University and a study co-author, says that it is important for job seekers to understand that speed provides more of an edge than writing the "perfect" answer or playing it cool.

"It is something that you can control, that can give you an advantage," she says.

While the researchers acknowledge that responding quickly to professional inquiries is likely a bigger factor for freelancers than it is for those seeking full-time work, they believe their study offers lessons for all job seekers. Fierce competition for open roles, a flood of AI-generated communication from both job candidates and recruiters, and an always-on communication culture fostered during pandemic-era remote work have sped up the clock on the hiring process.

"We're in warp zone now," says Martha Heller, chief executive officer of Heller Search, a Massachusetts-based recruiting firm that specializes in finding candidates for C-suite technology positions.

Much of this can be chalked up to supply and demand, recruiters and career experts say.

"Companies have their pick of people right now," says J.T. O'Donnell, founder of Work It Daily, an online career-coaching platform. "If you're not quick to respond, you're out. There's just too many other people that are going to take your slot."

Artificial intelligence has further sped-up the recruitment process.

The technology has enabled recruiters to cast a wider net at the start of a search, O'Donnell says, resulting in a more competitive process for everyone contacted.

What timing works best

Job seekers at a minimum should aim to respond to a recruiter or hiring manager within the same day to avoid being left behind, the recruiters and career experts say.

O'Donnell say she tells job seekers to check their email and LinkedIn messages three times a day, seven days a week. Candidates should aim to be among the first 20 to respond to a message to stay in front of the pack, she says.

"The moment you decide you're going to craft a really professional note, and you take a day or two to do that, you're done," she says.

Billy Marchant, a managing partner at William Vaughn Talent Advisory, which recruits for finance and accounting positions, says he recently selected all of his candidates within just 48 hours for a job in the Midwest. After his team sent out initial messages and conducted around 20 screening calls, Marchant settled on five people to send to the hiring manager.

"It isn't dating in New York," Marchant says. Playing hard-to-get doesn't add any intrigue.

If you're tied up at your current job and can't respond right away, let the recruiter or hiring manager know, advises Andy Decker, CEO of New Hampshire-based Goodwin Recruiting.

"I'd like a call back that day, obviously-I'd like a call back within an hour," Decker says. But if a candidate is tied up at work and sends off a quick note that they can get back in touch at 5:15 p.m. and they stick to it, they're not any worse off than a candidate who sends a full response in five minutes, he says.

Avoid automated responses

The researchers identified one exception to the finding that replying quickly pays off: If a candidate's response looks like it was AI-generated, the positive feelings associated with punctuality disappear.

Many job seekers have taken to using AI services that mass-apply to jobs around the clock, tailoring the user's résumé (sometimes with false information) to each role.

Decker says he has seen firsthand how this inflates application numbers.

"If I post a job, I'll get 10,000 applicants, and 7,000 of them won't realize they applied and won't actually have any interest in the job," he says.

O'Donnell warns that using this method can get candidates blacklisted from companies who catch on.

If you want to use AI to help write your emails, O'Donnell says, check that it isn't obvious (tell it not to use em dashes, or long dashes, to start; they are considered a sign that something could be AI-generated). And be sure that you "fully internalize and can speak to" the words you're sending, she says.

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