Ask HN: Do hiring managers like to be contacted directly about job inquiries? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do hiring managers like to be contacted directly about job inquiries?

6 pointskhaag8 comments

How do the hiring managers of HN like to be contacted by job applicants? Do you like when potential candidates seek you out and contact you directly? Or do you prefer them to go through your applicant tracking system? Or do you prefer if they email your generic jobs@ or careers@ email?

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Personally, when it comes to companies with < 30-50 employees (early stage, seed fund or a series A), I have had a massive amount of success cold-contacting the CEO or CTO (if VERY small, < 10 employees) or the hiring manager (once somewhere is large enough to have one) directly.

I actually have never had a job that I did not get in this manner, contract or full time.

Edit: This is with the added addendum that I research the company beforehand, and know their business model and products as well as any engineering stuff they have published/blogged about.

Generally no as people typically spam their CV, especially when I'd had a job advertised to contact HR and people guess me as the hiring manager. This will work against you most likely.

But really it would depend how you make contact. If you simply send a CV saying I want a job, you'll get the brush off.

The exceptions are;

1) If I've worked with someone even if it's not a close relationship. Then I'm much more open to chatting about something coming up or sending someone to a colleague as a recommended known quantity.

2) Send useful information. e.g. Send a document saying something my business is currently doing that I am responsible for and you feel by doing XYZ you could improve this. If its a good idea with realistic implementation I'd likely chat and consider a contract which might lead to something more permanent. This I feel is the best way to approach someone if looking for a job.

Edit: Fixing embarrassingly bad grammar.

It depends a lot for me on the quality of the contact.

As soon as I started hiring at my last company, I got a lot of worthless email. Tons of contacts from companies selling low-rent coding. Randos selling things totally irrelevant. People who sent in resumes apparently without even reading my advertisement. Kooks.

That left me generally ill-disposed to anything that looked spammy, thoughtless, or clueless. So if you're going to write directly, make it worth the reader's time. Your email should be smart, clear, and short. You should have read and understood absolutely everything publicly available. And you should be either asking or telling me something that is not already obvious.

Best of all, of course, is that you get somebody to make an introduction. If somebody I already respect is willing to vouch for you, that's worlds better than a cold email out of the blue.

I think the size of the company totally matters. The smaller the company the more likely that contacting the hiring manager is a good idea.

If you're a legitimate engineer (ie. not a recruiter or overseas "IT agency"), I don't care how you contact me.

I would say: contact through the official channel (so that you are "in the system") and at the same time contact the manager with a short (!!!) and targeted email.

If the hiring manager is disclosed in the job listing, it shouldn't be out of bounds to reach out. However, if you're using your social engineering skills to find out who it is, don't be surprised if it's not appreciated.

I speculate - I'm not actually certain of this - that I would do better by sending a dead-tree letter and resume via snail mail.

What leads me to believe this is that I never had much trouble finding jobs before it became common to apply for them online.

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