Cold Messaging Recruiter Template Hi, here's a template I used that got me interviews and referrals. TEMPLATE: "Hi (Hiring Manager), I’m writing to you to introduce myself and reach out for the role you’re hiring for. Currently doing (position) work at (Company) in the (industry/sector) and looking to grow my skillset in (insert what interests you about this role). Would be great to chat more. (Name)" ^def modify or alter this as needed tho tbh. some people attach their resume/other supporting materials as sometimes i get asked "can i see your resume". in addition, some people customize messages to each individual recruiter, meanwhile other people shotgun messages. overall, i'd just have the same general framework of mentioning who you are, and what you want in a short concise way, but feel free to swap things up. // Accompanying brief (2 min) video if you'd like to view it: https://youtu.be/xVsmatsNnaI // Image of a referral below/template in use: EDIT: Saw this got sent to people's emails. Thanks for sharing, Jumpstart! For those seeing this, if you want me to post about certain topics in the future, (whether on here or YouTube) feel free to reach out or comment about what you want me to touch on Context: Getting to the interview is a game of luck. You can meet all the requirements of the posting and be the best possible candidate and still never make it to the interview. When recruiters are spending 7 seconds to review a resume it makes sense that you would get passed up on simply because they didn’t see all your qualifications in that time frame. Maybe, they just happened to see enough good resumes before reading your resume and decided to stop reviewing them. Maybe, their co-worker gave a reference for their nephew so they gave that application more weight. Most of these factors are beyond your control, but what you can do is increase your luck. The goal of messaging people at a company is to INCREASE YOUR LUCK. I’m not promising you a get rich quick scheme. Notice how I said “LUCK”. Even with messaging it’s a numbers game since not everyone will respond. However, if they do respond now your applications can carry more weight and you can achieve the benefits listed below. The Benefits of Messaging Strangers - Chance to show them your interest and abilities, which could lead to an interview. o Interest is shown since much fewer people actually put the work in to reach out o You get a chance to articulate your abilities outside of your resume and cover letter. - Once you’ve established a connection you can follow up down the road to see how your application is doing. Have you ever felt like the portal is just a black hole? Well now you can ask someone directly to check on it for you. - Many start-ups are too small to have HR departments so they won’t have postings out in the first place even if they want to hire interns. By starting a conversation with a member of the startup you can create a job opportunity for yourself - Build your NETWORK o Maybe you get rejected this time, but X years down the road when you want to work for them you can respond to that same email thread. - Get to ask questions about the company: o This will allow you to better prepare your cover letter and interview. o Figure out if you actually want to work at the company o Figure out the challenges the company is dealing with so that you can sell yourself by saying that you can help address these problems What is messaging? I’m talking about messaging recruiters, engineering managers and employees at the company you’re applying to. This can be through email, LinkedIn or any communication that works for you. I’ll elaborate on what to message below. Messaging should not be considered an “extra step”. If you don’t message someone it’s like completing 70% of the application process and moving on. The whole point of career fairs is to collect emails of recruiters so that you can email them after you’ve applied. Step 1: Figure out who to message Go on LinkedIn, look up the company you’re applying to and find recruiters, project managers, employees. If you’re trying to get an interview, I’d say that it is more important to connect with managers that are overseeing the projects that you’re going to work on. This way you can convince them to bring you onto the team. But you can also message recruiters. Employees are more of a last resort unless you are asking questions about their experience. Ex) If I am applying to an engineering team at Tesla I might connect with this guy. Make sure you scope out his profile to figure out what team he is overseeing first. In case you can’t find the right manager, you can still message any of them and try to get them to refer you to the right person. You can also try recruiters and employees. Step 2: Writing the Connect Message/Convincing them to Accept the Connect When People send me random connects I usually don’t accept it unless they have a specific message attached. In your opening message you want to convey why you want to connect, potentially why you’re interested in their work and how your experience relates to what they do. This is what I do. Not necessarily what you should do. If you know a better way, let me know. ADD YOUR SPICE TO IT. (oooh so spicy!) Ex) In this example I demonstrate interest by showing that I know the company is involved in the consumer and military sector. Ex) In this example I messaged someone at a company I wanted to work at. I demonstrate interest by bringing up a past project that they have worked on. Step 3: The Follow up Once they accept your connect it’s time for you to send them the actual message. What do I message them?~ This is where it becomes more subjective and experiences vary I believe it’s most important to SELL YOURSELF in the follow up . Talk about how your experiences relate to company’s work. You can get creative, even if your work barely relates to their stuff. It’s often best to support these claims with your resume or portfolio. All you’re trying to do is get to the INTERVIEW. This is the best way to convince them to pass you resume along, interview you or connect you to the right person. - Skip the small talk. People rarely reply to messages so don’t bet on them responding very often. Go straight to the point. You’re on LinkedIn, everyone knows you’re trying to get a job. o However, you don’t want to be rude with it. Still open with a “hope you’re doing well” or some opener. - You can ask them about their experience working at said Company and demonstrate interest in their work. Ex) Be up front with what you want. I clearly state that I want a 16 month position. If they can’t do that then you find out sooner. I tell them about a recent experience I had and leave a link to my portfolio to show that my claims are backed up. FINAL NOTE: You will be put on read. Don’t take it personally. I obviously only showed you the 1 attempt that worked and left out the many messages that were left on read or unopened. But DON’T FORGET the purpose of messaging: INCREASE YOUR LUCK. At the end of the day, all you can do is your best, but make sure you’re maximizing what you can do. - What if they don’t accept my connect? o Figure out their email . There are many ways to figure out someone’s email since most companies follow a standard format. You can also go on Rocket Reach o Find someone else at the company on LinkedIn Alternative Strategy: Email Pitch Format → I found this email strategy from the article, all credit goes to Uduak Obong-Eren https://meekg33k.dev/what-i-learned-from-doing-60-technical-interviews-in-30-days-ckda9sn7s 00iftss13b0wd0ky I’ve only tried this once, but the time that I did do it I got a response from the project manager Screenshot taken from Uduak Obong-Eren’s article linked above. Basically, figure out the hiring manager’s email and send them a clear and concise pitch of why you’re a good fit for the position. Resume and cover letters are clunky to read and very restrictive in what you can express. Referrals Are King - A Shithead Guide On Successfully Applying To Jobs, Even - ESPECIALLY - When You're A Shithead. I must introduce this guide first with this preamble: I cannot for the life of me believe that people are not doing this. I mean that literally - I believe, and to a larger degree, I hope, that this is all useless information. However, I have helped close to three dozen friends go from getting nearly zero interviews or even responses, to getting them all the time, just by... get ready for it... this one simple trick. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If your primary strategy for applying to jobs is by going to indeed.com, monster.com, jobs.linkedin.com - etc, and hitting submit on an application, then I am so happy to inform you that you're just doing this wrong. I have applied to many jobs this way, and I have sparingly seen a response. Why? Because I'm a shithead, and no one wants to hire a shithead. So, what did I do instead, and what did all my other shithead friends do instead? What The Hell To Do Instead HAVE A RESUME THAT LOOKS GOOD I have seen so many resumes from newgrads and junior engineers with the most blegh looking resumes. I am not talking content here - by now, I hope you know how to make your resume sound, and this is not going to be a guide on how to make your resume sound good. But for the love of God, if you're making your resume on microsoft word, do yourself a favor and make yourself a resume on overleaf. Or whatever you want. Make it look good. Overleaf makes it hella easy, especially if you're a developer. Don't know LaTeX? Neither do I, and I got by just fine, and, remember, I'm a shithead. You can figure it out, I promise. Okay, have a nice looking resume? Good. Use LinkedIn to Contact People. Seriously. I have never, ever, ever , sent an application randomly through one of those crap-chute websites and expected to ever hear anything back. And guess what? Lo and behold, I nearly never hear back. So, here's what I do. Let's say I want to apply to a Spotify job. I'll go to Spotify's "careers at spotify" page, and look for two, three maximum, roles that sound right for me. Then, I go on linkedin.com and search "Spotify" and land on their company page. You should see something like this. Then, I click on the People tab. Then, I look at the filters that are immediately available. And I apply some filters! You want people in Engineering. You want people who went to your college. You want people who studied what you studied. You want people who are first, second, or even third connections. Just add as many filters as you can. The more related they are to you, the better! Then, start mass-adding people that clear the filters. If they are already a connection - great, send them a message. If they went to your school (this is very helpful) - great, send them a message. If they have your first name - great, send them a message. If they share fuck-all with you, great, send them a message! But they have to accept your connection first, of course, if you don't have Linkedin premium. A lot of them will. Some of them won't. Whatever, doesn't matter. You really just want 1-3 people. Once you have at least one person accept your connection request, send them a message! You don't want more than a paragraph. 1-2 sentences telling them why you are messaging them, 1-2 sentences introducing yourself, and 1-2 sentences to just shoot the shit. Something like: "Hey, my name is Texzone, and I am messaging you because I am interested in a job at Spotify. These roles I have sent below seem like a great fit for me (send roles after sending the intro message), and, I would love if you could refer me. I am a newgrad interested in backend development with a focus in data engineering, and I have some experience under my belt that I think would be beneficial to Spotify. [insert line about your qualifications; seriously, Keep It Simple, Stupid]. Thank you so much for everything, and have a great day!" That's it. " But u/texzone*, that's so annoying! I'm surely harassing them by doing this!"* You idiot. You know, if they refer you and you get accepted, most companies have a bonus that they offer the employee! It ranges anywhere from 2k-10k. And all they have to do is drag-and-drop your resume on some shitty internal portal, then continue picking their nose while watching whatever tiktok nonsense they were watching when you messaged them. Even if they don't get any money out of it, people like helping other people. Really, it's true. They do. And, with a referral, you are almost guaranteed an interview if you: 1. Have a clean looking resume and it sounds good. 2. You are applying to a role that matches your background/experience, at least loosely. 3. That's it. 4. Yeah that's really it. 5. I swear. Easy. I have applied to dozens upon dozens of jobs this way, and I have gotten interviews at nearly every single damn one. My resume isnt amazing. My experience isn't way out there. My friends? A lot of them had a clean looking resume, but had shit-all for experience. But they all got interviews as well. I am sharing this because I am forced to believe people aren't doing this, and are instead hitting submit on some portal. This is by far the worst god damn way to ever apply anywhere nowadays. Unless your resume is filled with jargon, years of experience, and a sprinkle of FAANG, forget this ever being a smart way to apply to jobs. So, that's how I, a shithead, have gotten over a hundred (I'm seriously not kidding) interviews over three cycles of job hunts that lasted about 3-5 months each. I applied once when I graduated, once during COVID, and just finished a job hunt right now. I now have some impressive stuff on my resume, thankfully. I look less and less like a shithead, and more like a professional - much to the dismay of the world - and I still don't ever hear back (rarely) from applying to jobs "normally." I still do apply normally - I'll send out applications every month or so, even when I'm working, so I can keep interviewing and stay ontop of my interviewing game. But from, say, 50 applications I send out, I'll maybe hear one response. But when I apply the way I described above? If the person delivered, and referred me, I never don't hear back. Neither do my friends. And I will almost always find someone to refer me. So... yeah, I hope this helps. Note: I guess this may not work for super small startups. Whatever. FAQs 1. Is this method something you would recommend for internships? 1. No, not really - this method is something that I strongly encourage for full time jobs. Internships, co-ops, etc - those are a different beast and I know nothing about that. A college internship? ...Maybe. A High school one? ...Unlikely. 2. AM I SUPPOSED TO SUBMIT MY APPLICATION BEFORE OR AFTER THEY REFER ME 1. VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY MUCH AFTER! DONT APPLY, LET THEM APPLY FOR YOU! If you apply before they refer you, well, then, you applied, and they can no longer refer you. So don't apply unless they explicitly tell you to do so. 3. Am I supposed to contact recruiters? 1. Yes. They are excellent. Yes, do contact them. But honestly I've just never really had much luck with them. 4. Do I attach my resume unprompted? 1. Up to you really. I usually don't. But you can. Especially if u like it A Man Of My Word. Passing it Forward. All that Goof Stuff. I work for Amazon. Anyone that wants a referral, let me know. But, as I eluded to in my post, I just finished my job hunt recently. I think I need about a month before I can refer people? I'll keep your info with me and refer you as soon as I can get do it. Mods, if this is against the rules, please let me know, I just read the rules and do not see it being against the rules.