Should I email a recruitment agency directly?

Yes, and they are the one target worth contacting more than once. An agency carries many vacancies at the same time, so up to four approaches is reasonable provided each is about a genuinely different role, where a direct employer gets one letter ever. Agency addresses are also unusually easy to find, because consultants publish their own. Across 86 cold emails a hiring inbox such as careers@ or recruitment@ replied 5 times out of 10, which is too small a sample to trust as 50% but clearly better than a generic inbox at 10%.

The one target worth writing to more than once

A direct employer gets one letter, ever. An agency is different: it carries many vacancies at the same time, and a consultant working a different desk has no idea you wrote to their colleague.

So up to four approaches is reasonable, with two conditions — each one is about a genuinely different role, and each names that role in the first line. Four letters about the same job is four letters about the same job however they are addressed.

Agencies are easy to reach

Consultants publish their own addresses, because being contactable is the job. Their sites list the team, the desks and often direct dials. This is the one sector where the company website almost always has a real name on it.

A hiring inbox is not a bad outcome here

Ten emails is far too few to trust that 50% as a rate. What the row does show is that a hiring inbox is read by somebody whose job is to read it, which a generic one is not.

What to say

Name the vacancy and its reference, say what you are, give two or three figures that match the spec, and ask one question. A consultant is deciding in ten seconds whether you are placeable — make that easy rather than interesting. The template is here.

Type a company, get the real address Other questions

The address finder is free and needs no account.