If you’re applying to jobs without also reaching out to recruiters or hiring managers in your space, you’re leaving opportunities on the table. But knowing how and when to engage is what actually matters.
Top: what my LinkedIn inbox looks like
~8–10 messages/day.
Owen (my boss) gets about double.
Nothing wrong with the messages.
But when everything sounds the same, it all blends together.
Especially when you’re skimming between meetings…
you don’t get much time to “figure out” what someone means.
Bottom: how I try to approach outreach
I don’t always get a response.
Some of it works, some of it doesn’t.
But the goal is simple:
if someone reads it once, they should immediately know:
- what I’m asking for
- why it matters to them
No decoding required.
Most outreach fails because it optimizes for sounding professional instead of being understood.
Make it easy on the other person to respond.
Genuine question:
Do you think “professional language” actually helps outreach…or has it just become noise we’ve all learned to skim past?
Sample Messages:
