I have a personal connection who is relatively senior at a company. He thought I would be suitable for a role and recommended I forward a cover letter and cv to their GM of HR (after clearing it with said GM internally).
Two weeks on I've received nothing at all in response. No confirmation of receipt, no introductory response, not even a 'thanks, no thanks.'
What action should I take at this point, if any? It could simply have fallen off the radar or they could be not at all interested.
Simply refer back to your personal connection and work from there.
Since your connection has the inside track, he should be able to provide some kind of clarity as to what the current situation is.
It might well be that the role isn't actually open for recruiting for yet, or there might be a breakdown in communication somewhere.
Your connection is the only person who can really chase this up, having the context.
Two weeks is a short time in the world of contemporary HR staff. The typical HR staffer will review hundreds of resumes and come up with a 'short list' of candidates. Then that list gets passed to the hiring manager for evaluation. After selection, HR does their follow up and contacts the candidates.
A polite follow up with HR is definitely in order. That confirms your interest in the position.
This is also a good time to touch base with your company connection; see if they have any visibility into the evaluation / selection process. Are you on the short list? Where is the hiring manager in the selection process?
As I hasn't applied for a specific role, I sent a polite follow up from the perspective of requesting feedback on my EoI.
Feels strange to answer my own question as "right" but I feel like neither of the answers were quite there in that one assumed I wasn't in contact with my pc and the other assumed I'd applied for a specific role.