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How to cold email a recruiter, with templates

A recruiter decides in a few seconds whether your email is worth reading. Make those seconds easy: a clear subject, one line about their post, a little proof, and your resume attached.

Updated · 3 min read

What a recruiter needs to see first

Recruiters read a lot of email, usually on a phone, often between calls. Before they open your resume they want to know three things: which role you’re applying for, whether you roughly fit it, and how to reach you. Everything else can wait for the resume.

Subject lines that say what’s inside

Name the role and add one detail that makes you a fit. Skip “Request for opportunity” or a bare “Job application”, since half their inbox says the same.

  • Frontend Developer application (React, 3 yrs)
  • Data Analyst role in Pune: SQL, Power BI, 2 yrs
  • Fresher QA Engineer, ISTQB certified, available now
  • Re: your post about Sales Executive openings

A simple structure: four short parts

  1. Greet them by name. “Hi Priya,” beats “Dear Sir/Madam” every time. If you only have a team inbox, “Hi Acme hiring team,” is fine.
  2. Write one line about their post. Show you read it: the role, the team, or the tools they mentioned.
  3. Give two or three lines of proof: years of experience, tools, a project, a result.
  4. Make a small ask and sign off with your phone number and one or two links.

Aim for under 150 words. If it doesn’t fit on a phone screen without scrolling, cut it down.

Template: Replying to a hiring post

Subject Frontend Developer application (React, 3 yrs)

Hi Priya,

I saw your post about the frontend developer openings at Acme. I’ve spent the last three years building React and TypeScript apps, most recently a customer dashboard used by a few thousand people a day.

My resume is attached. Would you be open to a quick call this week?

Thanks,
Alex Morgan
+91 98xxx xxx10 · linkedin.com/in/alexmorgan
Template: You’re a fresher or recent graduate

Subject Fresher Java Developer, B.Tech 2026, available immediately

Hi Rahul,

Your post mentioned Acme is hiring Java developers with 0–1 years of experience. I graduated in Computer Science this year, and during my internship at Northwind I built a Spring Boot inventory app that their warehouse team now uses every day.

My resume is attached, and the code is on GitHub at github.com/alexm. I’d be glad to take a coding test.

Thanks,
Alex Morgan
+91 98xxx xxx10
Template: The role isn’t advertised

Subject Data Analyst, 4 yrs SQL and Python: interested in Acme’s analytics team

Hi Neha,

I’ve been following Acme’s work on fraud detection and noticed the analytics team has been growing. I’m a data analyst with four years of SQL and Python, currently at Contoso, where I cut our monthly reporting time from two days to two hours.

If anything opens up on the team, I’d love to be considered. My resume is attached.

Best,
Alex Morgan
linkedin.com/in/alexmorgan

Mistakes that get emails skipped

  • Sending everyone the same message. A copied first line is easy to spot, so mention their post.
  • Attaching a Word file. Send a PDF and give it a proper name: Alex-Morgan-Resume.pdf, not resume_final_v3.pdf.
  • Writing your life story. Save it for the interview.
  • Pasting your whole resume into the email body.
  • Leaving out your phone number. Some recruiters would rather call than reply.

Writing to a lot of recruiters without it feeling like spam

You can apply to many roles and still write to each recruiter like a person. What matters most is the first line, the one about their post. PostToHired’s CustomSend reads the hiring post and your resume, drafts that email for you and opens it in Gmail so you can check it first. Nothing is sent until you press Send.

Heard nothing after a week? That’s normal. Here’s how to follow up without being annoying.

Next: How to follow up after sending your resume

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