There is a particular kind of professional flutter that happens when a hiring-related email lands in your inbox. Maybe it’s from a big recruiting firm. Maybe it’s from a Fortune 500 company. Or maybe it’s just someone asking if you’re available for a job, project, interview, or “quick chat.”
Once that message arrives, though, for reasons that no one can really explain, you wait to respond.
It’s not because you’re unavailable. And it’s not because you need time to craft the perfect response. It’s because, somewhere along your professional development path, the idea entered your head that replying too quickly makes you look desperate. Too eager.
And so, you wait. You let that message breathe. You artificially delay an otherwise normal response to seem busier and more in demand. In short, you play “hard to get.” But it turns out that playing hard to get isn’t a great way to get hired.
According to new research co-authored by Eric VanEpps, associate professor of marketing and Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Dean’s Faculty Fellow at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management, reply speed is actually an important factor in shaping hiring decisions.
In “Speed Is a Signal: When Faster Replies Increase Hiring Likelihood,” published this past month in Management Science, VanEpps and co-authors Einav Hart of George Mason University, Ovul Sezer of Cornell University, and On Amir of University of California San Diego examine how reply speed shapes hiring decisions. Their findings show that job seekers and service providers actually benefit from responding quickly to employer messages.
Across transaction data from a large real-world marketplace and several experiments, the researchers found that employers don’t appear to interpret fast replies as embarrassing eagerness. Instead, they read speed as a signal that the person will be responsive in the future.
In other words, your quick reply is not saying, “I have nothing else going on.” It’s saying, “This job is a priority to me.”
It’s a subtle distinction. But a potentially make-or-break one.
The research begins with a massive dataset from Fiverr, the online marketplace where employers contact freelancers for services ranging from graphic design to copy editing to website development. The researchers analyzed more than 11.6 million message exchanges between buyers and sellers, focusing on cases where an employer contacted a provider before deciding whether to hire them.
The results did not favor the “I’ll respond tomorrow so I don’t look desperate” approach. Even short delays were associated with lower hiring likelihood. A one-hour delay was linked to a 46% decrease in the chance of being hired. A one-day delay was linked to a roughly 90% decrease.
Of course, Fiverr doesn’t represent every hiring context.
But in experimental studies involving thousands of participants, the researchers tested the pattern across providers in different professions, accounting for ratings and message content. In those cases, faster responders were still more likely to be hired. They were also seen as more responsive, warmer, and more competent.
Importantly, reply speed is not merely about the length of the delay. It’s about what that delay implies. Potential employers use speed to make assumptions about what someone will be like to work with.
Fast responses suggest future responsiveness. Slower responses potentially suggest the opposite.
The study also complicates one of the most common self-presentation mistakes: the idea that playing hard to get makes you seem more desirable. In hiring, it turns out, withholding a response does not create mystique or build interest. The recruiter is reaching out because they are already interested in you. Delaying a response derails the conversation and creates uncertainty about you as a potential employee.
The researchers are careful, though, not to reduce responsiveness to pure speed. A fast reply still has to be useful and carry insight. A message that arrives immediately but answers nothing, ignores the question, or is automatically generated is not going to win you the job.
It’s a caveat to take to heart in this age of AI. Automated tools can make instant replies easier, but speed fails to signal anything positive about you as a potential employee when the response feels generic, inattentive, or obviously machine-generated. The goal is not simply to be fast. It’s to be fast enough and thoughtful enough to engage in a conversation.
For job seekers, freelancers, and anyone trying to make a strong first impression, VanEpps’ research offers a practical correction to a persistent anxiety. You don’t need to wait three hours to seem normal. And you certainly don’t need to wait a day to appear more desirable. Professionalism isn’t hiding your interest behind a carefully engineered delay. It’s just quickly and thoughtfully answering the email.