How to email a recruiter about a job

When emailing beats applying

The honest answer is: when you have an address the employer published, and something specific to say. A recruiter named in the posting, or an address in the job advert, is an invitation. Finding someone's address elsewhere and writing to them unprompted is a different act, and it is judged differently.

It is most worth doing for roles where you are a strong but non-obvious fit - where a filter would miss you because your title does not match, or your experience is in an adjacent industry. A form cannot explain that. Two sentences can.

The length rule, which is the whole game

Under 150 words. Shorter if you can. This is the single thing that separates emails that get read from emails that get archived, and almost everybody gets it wrong in the same direction.

The reason is mechanical. A recruiter opens their inbox on a phone between meetings. An email that fills the screen gets marked unread to deal with later, and later does not come. An email they can read without scrolling gets a decision now, and a decision now is what you want - even a no.

The other reason is that length signals need rather than value. A long email reads as someone explaining why they deserve a chance. A short one reads as someone who knows what they bring and assumes the reader is busy.

What goes in it

Four parts, in this order, and nothing else.

• One line naming the role and where you saw it, so they know which of their twelve openings this is about.
• Two or three lines of your most relevant experience, with specifics - a number, a system, a scale. Not adjectives.
• One line offering the next step: your resume attached, or a short call.
• Your name. No signature block, no links to five profiles.

What to leave out

Everything that is about you rather than about the fit. Your career narrative, why you are leaving your current role, what you are looking for in your next opportunity - none of it helps a recruiter decide whether to reply, and all of it costs you the attention you need for the part that does.

Also leave out the openings that mark an email as a template. 'I hope this email finds you well.' 'I am reaching out regarding.' 'I am passionate about.' Recruiters read hundreds of these a week and the phrases are invisible to them in the worst way: they are read as noise, and the eye moves on before reaching your actual point.

And do not attach a cover letter. The email is the cover letter. Attaching one as well doubles the reading and signals you did not know which to send.

The subject line

Name the role and yourself. 'Senior Frontend Engineer - Imran Khan' tells a recruiter what this is before they open it, and sorts correctly when they search their inbox two weeks later.

Avoid anything that reads as a marketing email: no exclamation marks, no 'Application!' no 'Your next hire'. The subject's job is to be unambiguous, not interesting.

Attach the resume

Attach it rather than offering to send it. A recruiter who has to reply and ask often does not - not from rudeness, but because the reply costs them a decision they can defer. An attachment makes the decision possible in one sitting.

A PDF, named with your actual name. 'resume_final_v3.pdf' arriving from a stranger is an unhelpful file in a folder of unhelpful files.

Following up, once

If you hear nothing after a week, one short reply to your own email is reasonable. Two is not. Recruiters are not ignoring you so much as triaging, and the second follow-up moves you from a pile they will get to into a pile they have decided about.

If the posting is still open a month later and you have something new to add - you shipped something relevant, a certification came through - that is a fresh reason to write and a different email.