Cold Emailing Recruiters and Hiring Managers

Recruiters are managing dozens of roles and hundreds of applicants. The hiring manager has one open position and a problem they need solved. They are also far less likely to be receiving cold outreach.

You can usually identify them from LinkedIn: the person who manages the team the role sits in.

Under 120 words. A specific reason you are writing to them, one piece of evidence, and a low-friction ask.

• Subject: a plain description, not a pitch.
• First line: something specific about their team or product that proves you looked.
• Second: one concrete result of yours that maps to their problem.
• Close: asking whether it would be useful if you applied is easier to answer than asking for a call.

• Anything that opens with hoping the email finds them well.
• A paragraph about what you are looking for, before anything about them.
• An attached resume with no message.
• Obvious mail-merge, especially a wrong company name.
• Following up four times in a week.

One follow-up after about a week, adding something rather than repeating yourself. After that, let it go — the silence is an answer, and pursuing it costs you the goodwill you built.