Is it rude to email a hiring manager directly about a job?
No, as long as it is short, it is to an address the employer published, and you send it once. A hiring manager with a vacancy wants to hear from people who can do the job, and a short email that names the role is easier to deal with than a stack of portal applications. Across 86 cold emails to UK employers, a named person replied 38% of the time. What does come across badly is a guessed address, a long letter, a second email to somebody else at the same firm, or chasing more than once. Apply through the portal too if there is one; the email is how a person notices you.
What makes it welcome
- An address they published. In the advert, on their website's contact or team page, or a hiring inbox like careers@. Printing an address is an invitation to use it.
- Short. 60 to 90 words: the role, one detail from the advert, two things you have done that matter to it, one question.
- Once. One email to one person at the employer. At most one short follow-up on the same thread if nothing comes back.
What makes it unwelcome
- A guessed address. If it bounces, it hurts your email's reputation; if it lands on the wrong person, it wastes their time.
- Writing to three people at the same company about one job.
- A long cover letter pasted into the email body.
- Chasing again and again.
Who replies
| Who received it | Reply rate |
|---|---|
| A named person | 38% |
| A hiring inbox (careers@, hr@) | 50% |
| A generic inbox (info@) | 10% |
From 86 cold emails to UK employers over four weeks. Several replies were polite noes, which is still better than the silence of a portal.
To find an address the employer published, type the company's name into the free finder.
Where these numbers come from
86 cold emails to real UK employers over four weeks, sent by one person looking for work, logged as they went. 22 replies. The full method and every table is in the playbook, free, no account.
They are engineering and technician roles in Scotland, so a different trade may behave differently. Where a row is thin it says so on the row.
Since then: 171 applications across 137 employers, 32 replies, 19%. Live, and updated after every run.
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