How to email the hiring manager after applying

An application on a job portal or a careers page joins a queue. Depending on the company, someone reads it that week, or a filter sorts it first. A short email to the person who will decide tells them you exist and which application is yours.

It helps most when the role is a close fit and the company is small enough that the manager reads their own email. It doesn’t replace the application: if the post says to apply on the portal, apply there first.

• The job post itself: some name the team lead or say who to write to with questions.
• The manager’s own LinkedIn post about the opening, which often gives an email in the post or a comment.
• A hiring address on the company’s careers page, such as careers@, when no person is named.
• The recruiter named on the listing, if the role is handled by one.

Skip addresses you would have to guess. See how to find the right address for the order to try them in.

• A day or two after you apply, so your application is already in their system.
• On a working day, in the morning: it is read with the day’s email, not under it.
• Not the same minute you apply, and not five minutes before a deadline.
• Not at all if the post says “no calls or emails”. Respect it.

1. 1

   A subject that says you applied

   The role, “applied” and your name: Product Analyst, applied 27 Oct: Varun Menon. Add the job’s reference number if it has one.
2. 2

   First line: the role and that you applied

   Where you applied and when, so they can find it in their system.
3. 3

   One piece of proof

   The project or result that best matches the role’s first requirement, in two sentences.
4. 4

   A small ask

   A look at your application, or a short call if they would like one. Not “please shortlist me”.
5. 5

   The same resume, attached

   The one you submitted, as a PDF named with your name and the role, so they don’t have to open the portal.

Under 120 words. They already have your full application.

Deepa, who leads analytics at a startup, posted that her team is hiring a product analyst: apply on the careers page, and write to her with questions. Varun applied there on Monday and writes on Tuesday.

Deepa can find his application from the first line, see why he fits from the second, and reply to the third with a yes or nothing at all.

If the recruiter’s post or profile gives an email address, use email, with your resume attached. If not, a LinkedIn message is fine, in two or three sentences:

One message, to one person. Don’t also connect with the whole team.

Send a short thank-you the same day to the person who interviewed you, in a reply to the email that set up the interview. Name one thing from the conversation, and add anything you promised to send.

Wait about a week, then follow up once in the same thread with one new thing. After that, put your time into fresher openings. How to follow up after no reply has two examples.

• Writing to several people at the company about the same application.
• Pasting your cover letter again. A new, shorter note reads better.
• Asking why you haven’t heard back yet, a day after you applied.
• A guessed address. It may bounce, and bounces make your later emails more likely to land in spam.
• A different resume from the one you submitted. It confuses which one is current.

Haven’t applied yet, and the post gives an email? Write to it directly: see cold emailing for a job and writing an email to HR.