​​​​​​​Looking for Work? Don’t Worry About Seeming Too Eager

Story by:

• Inga Kiderra - [email protected]

Topics covered:

• Management Science
• Business
• Decision Making
• Careers
• Workplace Behavior

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Article Content

Many people worry that responding too quickly to a prospective employer could make them seem too available or even desperate. New research published in Management Science suggests they may be worrying about the wrong thing.

Analyzing 11.6 million marketplace interactions and a series of experiments involving both job candidates and service providers, the researchers found no evidence that delaying a response improves hiring prospects. Instead, employers consistently preferred faster responders.

"People have this intuition that playing hard to get is somehow useful," said On Amir, a professor at the UC San Diego Rady School of Management and co-author of the study. "We find the opposite is true."

Speed matters because it signals responsiveness

The study combined real-world marketplace data from Fiverr, a platform connecting employers with freelancers, with three main experiments involving more than 3,600 participants and five supplemental studies involving another 5,000 participants.

In the Fiverr data, a one-hour delay was associated with a 46% reduction in hiring likelihood, while a full-day delay reduced hiring likelihood by roughly 90%.

The effect persisted even when participants had access to other information, including ratings and the content of a response.

The experiments suggested that faster responders made better first impressions. They were judged to be warmer and more competent - and most importantly, as likely to be more responsive in the future.

People use reply speed, the researchers conclude, to infer what someone might be like to work with.

"Speed is a signal. People see a quick response as a sign that you'll be attentive to their needs in the future, not just right now," said co-author Einav Hart of George Mason University.

Interestingly, the researchers found a gap between what people said about response speed and what they did. Participants reported that same-day responses would be just fine, yet consistently preferred much faster responders when making their actual hiring decisions.

Authenticity matters, too

The researchers caution against reducing the findings to a simple rule about replying as quickly as possible.

"Speed matters because people use it as information," Amir said. "But there isn't an equal sign between speed and responsiveness. Authenticity matters, too."

The researchers found that while response speed influenced hiring decisions, people also paid attention to whether a response appeared personalized and attentive.

That distinction may become increasingly important as AI makes instant responses easier to generate. While automated replies can eliminate delays, they may not convey the thoughtfulness or engagement that people ultimately value. In the experiments, faster replies lost their appeal when recipients believed them to be generated automatically or by an AI.

The takeaway is straightforward: Once someone reaches out, there appears to be little advantage in making them wait. But a quick response is most effective when it is also genuine.

To read the full study: https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2024.06185

In addition to Hart and Amir, other co-authors of the study are Eric VanEpps of Vanderbilt University and Ovul Sezer of Cornell University.