1. Go to the hiring manager, not the portal
Applications sent through a careers portal are screened by software and often by a recruiter who is not the person with the vacancy. A short, specific message to the manager who owns the role bypasses both.
Work out who that person is — usually the head of the team the role sits in — and send something brief. Two or three sentences on why you are writing, one concrete piece of evidence you can do the job, and a clear ask. Then apply formally as well, and mention that you have.
The message that works is specific to them. "I saw you are hiring a paid acquisition manager. I ran the paid search account at a similar-sized company and cut cost per acquisition by a third in eight months. I have applied through the portal — happy to send a short summary of how I would approach your first ninety days if useful."
2. Do a small piece of the actual work
Nothing else in a job hunt is as persuasive as evidence. Instead of asserting that you are good, produce a small artefact that demonstrates it.
A one-page teardown of their onboarding flow with three specific improvements. A short analysis of a market they are entering. A rewritten version of a landing page with your reasoning. For technical roles, a small working prototype.
Keep it short and clearly framed as a starting point rather than a finished consulting deliverable. The point is not to solve their problem for free; it is to make the reader think about what you would be like to work with. Be careful not to be gratuitously critical — you are demonstrating judgement as much as skill.
3. Work your weak ties
The people most likely to connect you with an opportunity are not your close friends. Your close circle knows the same things and the same people you do. Acquaintances — a former colleague from three jobs ago, someone you met at a conference, a university contact — move in different networks and are the ones who surface information you would never otherwise reach.
The approach that works is specific rather than general. "Do you know of any jobs?" is hard to answer. "I am looking at product marketing roles at B2B software companies in Berlin — do you know anyone working in that space I could talk to?" is answerable in thirty seconds.
Make it easy for them to say yes, and make it easy to say no as well. People help far more readily when refusing is low-cost.
4. Follow the hiring triggers
Hiring is predictable if you watch for the events that cause it. Companies that just raised funding hire immediately. So do companies opening a new office, launching a product line, entering a new market, or replacing a departing senior leader.
Build a short list of organisations you would like to work for and set up alerts for their news. When a trigger appears, that is the moment to approach — often weeks before the role is written, let alone advertised.
The same logic applies to individuals. When someone senior moves into a new role, they frequently hire people they trust within their first few months. A congratulations message that opens a conversation costs nothing.
5. Get useful before you get needy
Contacting people only when you need something makes for a thin network. The alternative is to be genuinely useful first, without an immediate ask attached.
Share something relevant to their work. Make an introduction that helps them. Give a considered answer to a question they posted publicly. Comment substantively rather than performatively.
This is slower and it is not a manipulation tactic — it works because it is real. When you eventually do have an ask, you are a known quantity rather than a stranger sending a template.
6. Target companies, not vacancies
Most people search by job title and take whatever comes up. The alternative is to decide on twenty or thirty organisations you would genuinely like to work for, and then work on those regardless of what is currently posted.
Learn what they do, who runs the function you would join, what they have shipped recently, and where their problems are. Follow the people. Show up in the places they are — industry events, communities, comment threads.
When a role appears you are not a cold applicant; you are someone with context. And often you will hear about it before it is posted at all.
7. Ask for advice, not a job
A request for a job puts a stranger in the position of having to say no. A request for fifteen minutes of advice is easy to grant, and it produces far better outcomes.
Ask about their path into the field, what they wish they had known, what they look for when they hire, where they think the discipline is heading. Take notes. Do not pivot into asking for a role halfway through — it turns a genuine conversation into a bait and switch, and people notice.
What happens instead is that some of those conversations produce introductions, and some produce a message months later when something opens up. Send a proper thank-you afterwards and update them when something comes of their advice.