Can Waiting 10 Minutes Cost You a Job?

In 2020, when Stephanie (her last name has been withheld by request) was early into her PR career and up for an internship at an agency, a delay in her reference check nearly cost her the position. “When I heard that one of my classmates got the internship and I hadn't heard back, I went into panic mode,” she says. Though her spot had been filled, the agency liked Stephanie enough to offer her a different seat. Years later, after she became friendly with her colleagues, she asked them about her near miss. “They said they needed to lock someone in to meet their deadlines. And unfortunately, that's the name of the game,” she says. “Sometimes the fastest applicant is better than the best applicant.”

That sad truism has recently been proven thanks to a study conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt University. According to their analysis of 11 million interactions on the freelancer platform Fiverr, those who took more than 10 minutes to respond to a work request were 30% less likely to get hired. In today’s brutal job-hunting landscape, speed is beating out skill.