Unpopular opinion: cold emailing beats LinkedIn DMs for job hunting every single time

I tried LinkedIn DMs for like 3 months straight, maybe sent 50 messages to recruiters and hiring managers. Got maybe 2 replies and zero interviews. Then I switched to cold emailing with a short intro and my resume attached, targeted 20 companies in Austin. Got 6 replies and 3 actual interviews within 2 weeks. The difference felt huge because emails land in inboxes where people actually check for work stuff, not the spammy message folder. Has anyone else found this or am I just lucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

josephf101d ago

@danieljenkins yeah same here, cold email just works better cause it feels less like a spam folder.

danieljenkins1d ago

Man that is wild how big the difference was for you. I had basically the same experience when I was looking last year. LinkedIn messages just felt like they went into a black hole every time, maybe one reply out of dozens. Cold emailing actually got people to read what I wrote and respond like a human. It makes sense when you think about it because everyone gets so many LinkedIn notifications that they just ignore them. Happy it worked out for you too, honestly feels like a much smarter way to get noticed.