How many job applications should I send a day?

Around twenty, and one per employer ever. Volume is not the lever here: across 86 cold emails the gap between a good recipient and a bad one was about four times the reply rate, which no amount of extra sending closes. Recruitment agencies are the one exception, because they carry many vacancies at once, so up to four is reasonable if each one is a genuinely different job. Sending the same employer a second letter about a second role is the fastest way to be remembered badly.

Twenty a day, thirty seconds apart

Enough to make progress, few enough that each one can be about the actual advert. Beyond that the letters get generic, which costs more than the extra volume earns.

One per employer, ever

Not one per vacancy. If a company advertises three roles you want, pick the best fit and write once. Two letters from the same person about two jobs reads as somebody who wants any job, which is the opposite of the thing that makes a cold letter work.

Agencies are the exception

A recruitment agency carries many vacancies at once, so up to four is reasonable — one per genuinely different role, spaced out, each naming its own job. More on agencies.

Why volume is not the lever

Across 86 cold emails, the gap between a well-chosen recipient and a badly chosen one was about four times the reply rate. Doubling your sending does not close a gap like that; it just doubles the number of letters going to the wrong inbox. Ten letters to named people beat forty to info@ on this sample, and took less time.

The cap that matters more

If no real address can be found, the right number to send is zero. 516 listings ended that way in the data published here, and every one of those was a correct outcome.

Type a company, get the real address Other questions

The address finder is free and needs no account.