# How to cold email a hiring manager for a job (and find their email) > How to find the hiring manager or recruiter on LinkedIn, get their work email and write a short cold email for a job, with templates and AI assistant prompts. - URL: https://salesql.com/blog/how-to-cold-email-for-a-job - Published: 2026-11-12 - Author: https://salesql.com/blog/author/ari-camino ## Key takeaways - Email the person who decides (the hiring manager) or the one who runs the search (the recruiter), one person at a time. - The job post and a LinkedIn search usually tell you who they are. Their work email follows the company's pattern, or a tool such as SalesQL shows it. - Keep the email under 120 words, about them and the role, with one clear ask. - Follow up once, about a week later. If they don't answer, or ask you to stop, stop. When you apply through a job board, your résumé lands in a pile with everyone else's. A short email to the person who decides, or to the recruiter who runs the search, puts a name to it. It doesn't replace the application, but it can get you a conversation. If AI is part of why you're looking, you're not alone. In the first ten months of 2026, US employers cited AI in announcements of 121,401 job cuts, about one in five of all the cuts they announced, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. This guide covers how to find the job post on LinkedIn, who to write to, how to find them, how to get their email and what to say, with templates you can copy. ## Find the job post first Start with the role you want on LinkedIn Jobs. Applying through the post is still the first step, and the post often tells you who to write to. :::steps 1. **Search in Jobs.** Open **Jobs** and describe the role and the place the way you'd say it, such as "product marketing manager in New York" or "remote data analyst". 2. **Filter the results.** Above the results you have, among others, **Date posted**, **Easy Apply**, **Workplace type**, **Experience level** and **Employment type**. 3. **Turn on an alert.** Below the list of jobs, turn on **Get job alerts for this search**. LinkedIn tells you about new posts for that search, daily by default, by email and in your notifications. You can have up to 20 alerts. 4. **Save or apply.** On the post, **Save** keeps it for later. **Easy Apply** lets you apply without leaving LinkedIn; **Apply** takes you to the company's site. ::: This is a search for "product marketing manager" in New York, with steps 2 to 4 marked: :::figure{src="/blog/how-to-cold-email-for-a-job/job-search-filters-and-alerts.webp" alt="LinkedIn job search results for product marketing manager in New York: the filters at the top marked 2, the Get job alerts for this search toggle marked 3, and the Apply and Save buttons of the open post marked 4" width="1257" height="952" caption="Real screen · the numbers are the steps"} ::: Apply early: once a post has been up for weeks, the process is usually well along. That's why a daily alert helps. ### Let recruiters know you're looking On your profile, select **Open to**, then **Open to work**, and fill in the job titles, location types and locations you're after. :::figure{src="/blog/how-to-cold-email-for-a-job/open-to-work.webp" alt="The Open to button on a LinkedIn profile, marked 1, with its menu open and the Open to work option marked 2" width="1000" height="671" caption="Real screen"} ::: LinkedIn's Help still calls that option "Finding a new job", but the screen says "Open to work". According to the Help, you also pick who sees it: with **Recruiters only**, it's shown to people who use LinkedIn Recruiter, and LinkedIn takes steps to hide it from recruiters at your current company, though it can't guarantee it; with **All LinkedIn Members**, anyone can see it. ## Hiring manager or recruiter: who to email There are usually two people worth writing to, and sometimes a third. :::table{caption="Who to email about a job"} | Who | Their part in hiring | Email them when | | --- | --- | --- | | The hiring manager | Leads the team and decides who joins it | You know which team you want, with or without an open role | | The recruiter | Runs the search, screens candidates and knows which roles are open | There's an open role, or you're not sure which team fits you | | Someone on the team | Does the job you want and can tell you what the team needs | You want to learn more before you write to the manager | ::: Write to the hiring manager when you can: they're the one with a gap on their team, so a relevant email lands with someone who wants it filled. At larger companies, the recruiter may be the way in, and they're the one who moves you through the process anyway. Start with one person per company. Writing to the manager, the recruiter and three people on the team on the same day looks like a campaign, not interest. ## Find the recruiter or hiring manager on LinkedIn We tried each step on LinkedIn on November 12, 2026, and the screens below are what we saw. :::steps 1. **Start from the job post.** Some job posts have a **Meet the hiring team** section, under **People you can reach out to**, with the person who posted the job. If yours does, that's your first name. 2. **If it isn't there, search the company's employees.** On the company's LinkedIn page, open **People** and search by role, such as "recruiter", "talent acquisition" or "marketing manager". LinkedIn takes you to a people search with the company already filtered, and you can add a location. 3. **Check they still work there.** In the results, **Current:** means the role you searched for is their current one at that company. **Past:** means they've moved on, even if the company filter matched them. ::: Don't count on the hiring team section. In our test, it showed up on only 2 of the 10 US job posts we opened, both from the same recruiting firm. :::figure{src="/blog/how-to-cold-email-for-a-job/meet-the-hiring-team.webp" alt="A LinkedIn job post with the Save and Easy Apply buttons and, under People you can reach out to, the Meet the hiring team card with the job poster's title and a Message button" width="1288" height="832" caption="Real screen · personal data blurred"} ::: Searching the company's employees works for any company. Here, a search for "technical recruiter" at Datadog, filtered to the United States: :::figure{src="/blog/how-to-cold-email-for-a-job/people-search-current-company.webp" alt="LinkedIn people search results with the United States and Datadog filters marked as 1, and the line Current: Technical Recruiter at Datadog marked as 2 under the first result" width="1148" height="704" caption="Real screen · personal data blurred"} ::: The hiring manager is usually the person the role reports to. If the post is for a backend engineer on the payments team, look for the engineering manager of that team. If it's for a product marketer, look for the head of product marketing. ### Message them on LinkedIn or email them? You can also reach people on LinkedIn, but each way has its limits: - **A connection request with a note.** Without Premium, LinkedIn lets you add a note to 3 invitations a month, of up to 200 characters. That's enough to say who you are and which role you mean, not much more. - **InMail.** It lets you message people you're not connected to, but it's a Premium feature, with a set number of InMail credits a month depending on the plan. - **Email.** It reaches their inbox, with no character limit and no LinkedIn quota. You need their address first, which is the next step. ## Find their email For a job, the work email is the one to use: it's where the person reads about their team. Most companies use one format for every work email, such as `first.last@company.com`, so with the person's name and the company's domain you can often work it out. Check it with an [email verifier](/email-verifier) before you send. If you'd rather not guess, a Chrome extension such as SalesQL shows the work email of the LinkedIn profile you have open and, when there is one, their direct email too. Open the SalesQL panel on the profile and select **Reveal Info & Add**: each email shows up on its own line, labeled Work or Direct. :::figure{src="/blog/how-to-cold-email-for-a-job/salesql-extension-work-email.webp" alt="A recruiter's LinkedIn profile next to the SalesQL panel after Reveal Info and Add, with two emails labeled Work and the note Added to My default folder" width="1588" height="827" caption="Real screen, cropped · personal data blurred"} ::: Revealing a contact costs 1 credit, and if no email is found, you're not charged. The Free plan includes 50 credits a month, with no credit card required, which goes a long way when you write to a few people at a time. Our guide on [how to find someone's email on LinkedIn](/blog/how-to-find-someones-email-on-linkedin) covers five ways in detail, from their Contact info to a B2B database. :::callout{type="warning" title="Use the work email, and verify it"} A guessed address that bounces reaches no one, and too many bounces hurt your email's reputation. Prefer the work email when you have it: a direct email is the person's own address, and many people would rather not get messages about work there. ::: :::cta ::: ## What to write: cold email templates for a job A good cold email for a job is short and about them. Before the templates, the rules they follow: - **A subject line with the role.** Name the role, the job ID if there is one, and one line of proof. - **A first line about them.** Their team, a launch, a talk or a post, so it's clear you didn't send the same email to everyone. - **Proof, not adjectives.** Two lines on what you've done that matters to them, with a link to your work: a portfolio, a GitHub repository or a case study. Don't attach your résumé to a first email; link to it. - **One ask.** A 15-minute call, or the name of the right person. Not "any opportunities you may have". - **Under 120 words.** If it doesn't fit on a phone screen, cut it. - **Your LinkedIn URL in the signature**, so they can check you in one click. ### To the hiring manager, about an open role :::template Subject: on your team: Hi , I saw you're hiring a for . I've spent years on , most recently at , where I . I've applied through the job post. Would you have 15 minutes in the next two weeks to talk about what the team needs? · ::: ### To the hiring manager, with no open role :::template Subject: interested in 's work on Hi , I've followed 's work on , and . I'm a with years in . At , I . If you're planning to grow the team, I'd like to be on your list. Would a 15-minute call in the next few weeks make sense? · ::: ### To a recruiter :::template Subject: (): , years in Hi , I've applied for the role () and wanted to put a name to the application. I'm a with years in , and at I . Are you the right person for this role, or should I write to someone else on the team? Thanks, ::: ### The follow-up (just one) :::template Subject: Re: Hi , Following up on my note about the role. Since I wrote, I . If now isn't a good time, no problem, and thanks for reading. ::: Send it about a week after the first email, in the same thread. If you don't hear back after that, move on to the next company: a third email rarely changes the answer, and it's the one people remember. :::callout{type="tip" title="One person at a time"} Don't send the same email to fifty people, and don't put your job search into an email sequence tool. Recruiters and hiring managers get those every day, and they can tell. Five emails written for five people are worth more than fifty that could have gone to anyone. ::: ## Let your assistant do the research If you already work with an AI assistant, it can do most of the research for you: find who leads the team, see who recruits at the company and get the work email of the person you pick, without opening profiles one by one. SalesQL is an official plugin in ChatGPT. In Claude, Cursor and other AI assistants, SalesQL connects as a custom connector, and it also works in Gemini CLI. It's on every plan, and you connect it by signing in with your SalesQL account. On Free it runs with lower daily limits and without phone numbers. Searching doesn't use credits, and revealing a contact costs 1 credit, from the same monthly credits as the extension. Try prompts like these, one company at a time. Naming SalesQL in the prompt tells the assistant where to look: :::prompt Use SalesQL to find marketing managers at in . Show their names, titles and LinkedIn URLs, and don't reveal anyone yet. ::: :::prompt Use SalesQL to find the recruiters and talent acquisition people at in . Search only, no reveals. ::: :::prompt Use SalesQL to find people at who used to work at . ::: :::prompt Use SalesQL to find the work email of , at . ::: People who used to work where you did are often the warmest way in: you have something in common before you write the first line. Once you know who to write to, the assistant can help with the draft. It writes from your notes, and you edit and send it yourself: :::prompt Using my notes below, draft a cold email to about the role: under 120 words, about their team, with one ask. Don't send anything. ::: A chatbot that only searches the web can return old or made-up addresses. Connected to SalesQL, it answers with SalesQL's data instead. :::figure{src="/blog/salesql-chatgpt-plugin/chatgpt-plugin-listing.webp" alt="The SalesQL listing in ChatGPT's plugin directory, with the Install plugin button and three example prompts" width="1188" height="1090" caption="Real screen · SalesQL in ChatGPT's plugin directory"} ::: The [MCP setup guide](/docs/mcp) shows how to connect each assistant, and you can [open SalesQL in ChatGPT](/chatgpt) to install the plugin. ## Before you send Email marketing laws were written for selling, and a one-to-one job application is a different thing. You're still using someone's personal data, though: - **Say how you found their address**, if they didn't give it to you. One line is enough. - **Follow up once.** One short follow-up, about a week later, is enough. - **Stop when they ask.** If someone tells you they're not interested, or asks you not to write again, don't. If you freelance and you're pitching your services rather than applying for a job, that's marketing email, and the rules in [Before you send](/blog/how-to-find-someones-email-on-linkedin#before-you-send), in our guide to finding emails on LinkedIn, apply. This isn't legal advice. If you're on the other side, anyone can ask SalesQL to remove their details in the [Privacy Center](/privacy-center), under "Remove me from SalesQL". ## LinkedIn limits It's your account, so read the rules before you install anything. In practice: - Open profiles at a human pace, and stay within the limits LinkedIn sets for invitations and messages. - To research many companies, use your AI assistant or SalesQL's Prospector instead: neither one uses your LinkedIn account. To try it on the profile you have open, [add SalesQL to Chrome](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/salesql-b2b-email-finder/lbdglhhdbgnknbdifhanfholehojlkgg). It's free to install. ## FAQ ### How do you cold email a recruiter? Find the recruiter who hires for the team you want, usually by a title such as Technical Recruiter or Talent Acquisition Partner at that company. Write a short email with the role and the job ID, two lines on why you fit and one ask, such as whether they're the right person for that role. Recruiters get many messages, so put the role in the subject line. ### Is it OK to email a hiring manager directly? Yes, as long as it's short and written for them, and you still apply through the job post when there is one. The email doesn't replace the application, it puts a name to it. Write once, follow up once, and stop if they don't answer or ask you to. ### How do I find a hiring manager's email? Most companies use one format for every work email, such as first.last@company.com, so with the person's name and the company's domain you can work it out and check it with an email verifier. A Chrome extension such as SalesQL shows the work email of the LinkedIn profile you have open, and an AI assistant connected to SalesQL can find it from their name and company. ### How long should I wait before I follow up? About a week. Send one short follow-up in the same thread, with something new, such as a recent project or a result. If you still don't hear back, move on to the next company. ### Is it legal to email a recruiter or hiring manager I found on LinkedIn? Email marketing laws were written for selling, and a one-to-one job application is a different thing. You're still using someone's personal data, though, so say how you found their address, follow up once at most and stop if they ask. If you freelance and you're pitching your services, the rules for marketing email apply. This isn't legal advice. ## How we checked - [Challenger, Gray & Christmas: October 2026 job cuts report (published November 5, 2026)](https://www.challengergray.com/blog/october-layoffs-at-three-year-low-seasonal-hiring-plans-up-26/) (checked 2026-11-12) - [LinkedIn Help: search for jobs on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a511260) (checked 2026-11-12) - [LinkedIn Help: job alerts](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a511279) (checked 2026-11-12) - [LinkedIn Help: let recruiters know you're open to work](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a509347) (checked 2026-11-12) - [LinkedIn Help: notes on invitations without Premium](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a563153) (checked 2026-11-12) - [LinkedIn Help: InMail messages](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a543695) (checked 2026-11-12) - [SalesQL plans and credits](https://salesql.com/pricing) (checked 2026-11-12) - [SalesQL MCP setup guide](https://salesql.com/docs/mcp) (checked 2026-11-12)