What’s the chance that me hitting up some rando on LinkedIn isn’t just gonna result in them ignoring the connection or telling me just to line up at the front door.
Most people reply to me. I am currently job searching and I have one who didn't reply? Don't target the CTO as he probably gets barraged, but a fellow guy with 2-3 years experience? They reply. Random people off Hacker News? They reply.
Message a recruiter working with the company (internal recruiters for example), they are litteraly searching for people, they'll be excited that a candidate reached out.
Of course some don't answer, but it's not a big number
In my experience it’s much better than 50%. The trick is to not just bug them for a job, but to ask questions about the work as well.