Step 3: Choose your targets · topic 2 of 3

Find the right people to contact

Once you have your company list, the question becomes who to write to. I suggest two or three people per company, in this order.

Who to contact, in order

1. Warm links come first. These are former colleagues, classmates, alumni of your school, people from a professional group, and anyone who shares a connection with you.
2. The likely hiring manager is next: the person one or two levels above the role you want. They feel the problem you'd solve.
3. A peer on the team can tell you what the work is like day to day, and sometimes refers you.
4. The recruiter for that area is worth contacting too, especially if a role is posted. In my experience recruiters juggle many roles at once, so be direct with them about which role you mean.

I'd leave the CEO and the general HR or careers inbox out, unless the company is very small. In my experience those messages tend to get forwarded, if anything happens at all.

Agency recruiters are different from in-house ones: they're paid by the employer to fill a role. They can be useful. Ask which company it is before you agree to be put forward, and don't let two agencies submit you for the same role.

People you know a little often help more than you expect. A large 2022 study using LinkedIn's "People You May Know" feature, covering 20 million people and 600,000 new jobs, found that weaker ties were more likely than strong ones to lead to a new job, up to a point. When tie strength was measured by mutual connections, moderately weak ties were the most useful. The same study found that in less digital industries, strong ties mattered more ^[1]. In plain terms: a former colleague you've lost touch with may be a better lead than your closest friend, but if you're coming from a less digital field, don't skip your close contacts either.

Warm links also matter because referrals matter. In a study of nine firms, referred applicants were more likely to be hired and to accept offers, and less likely to quit later ^[2].

How to find them on LinkedIn

You don't need a paid account for any of this.

1. Use LinkedIn search: type the company name and a job title, choose the People results, then open "All filters". You can filter by current company, past company, school, location and degree of connection ^[3].
2. Visit the company's LinkedIn page and open the People tab. It shows employees' job titles, areas of study and skills, and how you're connected to them ^[4].
3. Go to your school's LinkedIn page and open its alumni view. Filter by where people work (your target company) and what they do. A shared school is one of the easiest openings there is.
4. Look for names in the company's news, blog posts, podcasts and conference talks. Someone who just announced a new team is often hiring for it.

If you search a lot on a free account, LinkedIn may limit your people searches until the 1st of the next month ^[5]. LinkedIn says you can always search your own network on a free account, and company People tabs help too.

The next page covers how to spot and use mutual connections.

A rhythm that works

The pace I suggest to clients is small on purpose: four outreach days a week, and on each of them one company, two people, and one researched message to each. That's about 45 minutes a day and about 8 thoughtful messages a week, the same pace as the sample weekly routine. This is a habit from my coaching practice, not a researched number, so adjust it to the time you have.