Cold emailing to find company contacts?

Recently a guy posting on Reddit move away from his sales job and said he picked up a FAANG type job by cold emailing 100’s of company contacts asking for the contacts of the hiring person, emailing them resumes and then getting access to interviews.

His response rates were 5% to recruiters, 30-40% to engineers, and 70-80% to company sales staff. He said this approach was much more efficient than applying to open positions because those are swamped, especially these days.

I would like to ask if anyone else has done this and what your response has been? If good I may focus on this method instead of sending out applications through the standard front door approach of Indeed.com/Monster, etc.

Hey there,

it depends.

What is your background?
Do you have any degree?
Do you have any skills?
Does anyone already know who you are?

Hi, I’m a freelance writer with a BS in Finance. No one knows me, I can code React.js and Express apps with a PostgreSQL database.

I worked for a very large anti-spam company, so anyone “cold-emailing” me would probably find their efforts somewhat hampered in short order, at more than just my own workplace.

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Agreed.

I’d be worried about gaining a reputation for spamming folks, too. Word gets around, and an employer that finds out you’re flooding their employees with email might not be too keen on hiring you.

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That’s a great case study, thanks. I have read the email should be personal to the point it can not be used with any other company. And in 3-4 sentences I should compliment them, tell what I offer, and ask to speak on the phone about possibly working for them. Is that similar to the structure you follow with your emails, or would you recommend doing anything else? Thanks

Random people at the company probably can’t speak for the company. Best case scenario, they would forward your email to HR for HR to reach out. Or they would delete/ignore. Worst case it reflects poorly on you.