The best thing you can do is to make a point of getting an explicit expected response interval from the most important decision maker you can identify in the pr

The best thing you can do is to make a point of getting an explicit expected response interval from the most important decision maker you can identify in the process (which generally means not the HR flaky† who escorts you in/out, brings you water, and sometimes corners you for a useless wrap-up chat at the end). Particular bullet points you want to get are: - "So what's you're process moving forward?" Specifically, as to whether there will be additional rounds, or they're done and have all they need from you to make a decision. - "When can I expect to hear about [the next step]?" - "And when's the latest I can expect to hear something?" The last one is crucial, so you'll want to (gently) nail it down as best as you can. So if they say "within a few days" on a Tuesday, you can say "So by the end of the week, or at the latest, beginning of next week?". That will solidify things in their mind, and gently remind them that it will be somewhat rude if they don't respond to you by then. It also makes the question of whether to send a follow-up mail much less gut-wrenching (and in my view, pretty much removes the need for it altogether). By that I mean do send a thank you note (24-48 hours later, max). But once you've nailed down the response window with the primary decision maker, it's really in their court. If you want you can send a proper follow-up mail, gently reminding them that you were expecting to hear something by about that time. Strictly speaking, you don't need to -- if a shop doesn't respond (in any form) on a time frame more or less in line with when they explicitly said they would (thanks to your making a point to ask while on-site), you can be pretty sure they aren't, as the saying goes, all that into you. But then again, you don't need to care, either -- because everyone knows that's just shabby, and that shops that do that don't really have their act together. And would probably treat you shabbily in other ways, were you to start working for them. † But for good measure, go ahead and ask him/her, also. Because it usually ends up being their job to write the actual rejection email, should you be lucky enough to get one.