# followup

Source: https://career-ops.org/docs/reference/modes/followup (canonical HTML, identical content)

> Flags applications and interviews that are overdue for followup based on the cadence rules you configure. Drafts the followup messages so you can review and send.



## What it does [#what-it-does]

followup mode reads your application tracker, checks the date of last contact against the configured cadence (default: a first nudge 7 days after you apply, and 1 day after an interview for a thank-you note), and flags the entries that are overdue or urgent. For each flagged entry it drafts a contextual followup message grounded in that report and your CV.

## When to use it [#when-to-use-it]

Run followup on Monday mornings as a weekly ritual. Each Monday it surfaces the followups due that week with drafts ready to send. It is conservative by design — it will not flag an entry until the cadence threshold has clearly passed, so the dashboard stays short and every item on it is genuinely due.

## What a run looks like [#what-a-run-looks-like]

followup runs a cadence script over your tracker, prints a dashboard sorted by urgency, and drafts a message for each overdue or urgent row. The drafts lead with a concrete proof point, not with the ask, and they never say "just checking in."

```txt title="Terminal"
> /career-ops followup

Follow-up Cadence Dashboard — 2026-05-18
14 applications tracked, 3 actionable

| # | Company | Role                | Status    | Days | Sent | Urgency |
|---|---------|---------------------|-----------|------|------|---------|
| 1 | Notion  | Applied AI Engineer | Applied   | 9    | 0    | OVERDUE |
| 2 | Ramp    | Forward-Deployed    | Applied   | 8    | 0    | OVERDUE |
| 3 | Linear  | Product Engineer    | Responded | 1    | 0    | URGENT  |

Draft — Notion (overdue):
> Subject: Re: Applied AI Engineer — Notion
>
> Hi team, I applied for the Applied AI Engineer role on May 9th.
> The AI-workflow company I built and sold in 2025 shipped the same
> agent pipeline your posting describes. Would any time this week
> work for a short conversation?
```

## Gotchas [#gotchas]

An Applied role gets at most two follow-ups; after the second goes unanswered, followup stops drafting and suggests you close the entry or try a different contact through `contacto`. Want a tighter schedule than the seven-day default? Pass a flag to the cadence script — `node followup-cadence.mjs --applied-days 5` — rather than editing the drafts by hand.

## Related [#related]

* [tracker](https://career-ops.org/docs/reference/modes/tracker.md)
* [patterns](https://career-ops.org/docs/reference/modes/patterns.md)