Guide

How to email a hiring manager after you apply

By Sash Stolba · Updated 8 November 2026

An application on its own sits in a list with everyone else’s. A short email to the person hiring gets it read. Most applicants never send one, which is exactly why it works. Here is who to write to, how to find their address, what to say, and how to follow up without being a nuisance.

Who to email

Write to the hiring manager: the person the job reports to, such as the Operations Manager for an Operations Analyst job. They care most about filling the role and can ask the recruiter to look at you. If you can’t tell who that is, write to the recruiter or talent partner named on the posting. One person is enough: don’t email the whole team.

To find the hiring manager, read the posting for a title (“you’ll report to our Head of Finance”), then look up that title at the company on LinkedIn or on the company’s team page.

How to find their work email

• The posting itself. Some postings name a contact and an address.
• The company’s website. Team pages, press pages and blog posts often show staff emails.
• The company’s address pattern. If you can find any staff address, such as jane.smith@company.com, others usually follow the same pattern.

Use work addresses only. Never write to someone’s personal email or phone about a job.

When to send it

Apply first, then send the email the same day or the next working day, while your application is fresh in their system. If you email before applying, the usual answer is “please apply on our website”, and you’ve used up your first impression.

What to write: four sentences

1. Who you are, in your current or most recent role.
2. That you applied, naming the job title, so they can find you.
3. One result that matches the posting, with a number if you have one. Pick what the posting asks for most.
4. A small ask: a 15-minute call, not “a job”.

Keep the subject plain, such as the job title and “application”. Leave out attachments and links: your résumé is already in their system, and a message with no links is less likely to land in spam.

Template

Example

How to follow up

If there’s no reply after a week, send one follow-up in the same thread. Keep it to two sentences and add nothing new to read. After that, stop: two unanswered emails is a clear answer, and a third only hurts.

What to avoid

• Long emails. If it doesn’t fit on a phone screen, it won’t be read.
• “Did you get my application?” It asks them to do work for you. Give them a reason to look instead.
• The same message to everyone. The one result you mention should match this posting.
• Attachments and links. They trigger spam filters and add nothing the application doesn’t have.
• More than one follow-up.

Let Sixthacre send it for you

Writing a note like this for every application takes time most people don’t have once they’re applying to many jobs. Sixthacre does it after every application it sends: it looks for the recruiter’s or hiring manager’s work email on public pages, writes a short note from your real experience with no links, signs it with your name and sends one follow-up a week later if nobody replies. It reads every reply and sends interviews to you right away. You can turn notes off for any job. Why it applies on the company’s own site first