How to get your foot in the door at a company

You found a role that fits, tailored your resume, applied, and heard nothing. Now you're probably about to do the thing that keeps most job seekers stuck: sending the same resume through the same portal and hoping the queue moves.

This article covers how to map the people around a role, and how to run listening conversations. It also covers asking for introductions that get answered, and writing cold outreach and hiring manager notes worth replying to. Work through it in order, then run the weekly plan at the end so you always have several paths open at once.

The advice comes from Lauren Ipsen, a partner at Daversa Partners who recruits senior executives for venture-backed companies; Phyl Terry, whose book Never Search Alone has put thousands of job seekers through free job search councils; and Matt Mochary, who coaches tech CEOs and wrote the double opt-in introduction method used below.

Map the people around the work

A company has more than one door. The posting sits in an applicant tracking system, but the team behind it has a manager, peers, a recruiter, former employees, customers, and communities where they show up. Start with the role, then widen the map: the likely hiring manager, two people who'd be your peers, the recruiter, a former employee or two, customers or partners who know the team's work, and, at a smaller company, investors. Then search your own contacts for anyone connected to those names.

Rank each path by how much the person trusts you and how close they are to the work:

1. Direct trust: someone who has worked with you and knows the target team.
2. Shared context: a school or company alum, a customer, or someone from a community you both belong to.
3. Relevant cold path: a person whose work you understand well enough to write a specific note.

Ten names with a reason to reply are more useful than a hundred scraped contacts.

Start with a listening tour

Before you ask anyone for access, ask for their read on the market. Phyl Terry tells job seekers to ask people one question: if you were in my shoes, how would you approach this? People find it easy to answer, and answering it makes them more invested in how your search goes.

Terry says people are often scared of what they'll hear on a listening tour. In practice, most people in jobs like helping when the request is thoughtful, and the occasional piece of critique is worth having. Once in a while someone tells you that you make everything a priority, and that's useful to know before an interviewer notices it.

Bring enough preparation to make the conversation interesting. Share the roles you're considering, the strengths you want to use, the problems you want to work on, and why this company stands out. Then ask where your assumptions look weak.

End every conversation with a small next step: another person to talk to, something to read, or permission to send a short update later. If the conversation goes well, that person will often lead you to the next one.

Stay known before you need anything

Lauren Ipsen's advice for founders who want to hire great people works just as well for job seekers who want to reach great teams: keep the relationship warm long before you need it.

Useful contact can be small. Congratulate a former colleague on a launch and ask what surprised them. Send an article that connects to a problem you discussed. Tell someone how their advice worked out. When you eventually reach out about a role, your note has history behind it instead of arriving cold.

Ask for the right introduction

A strong introduction request names the person, explains the fit, and hands the connector text they can forward. Matt Mochary recommends the double opt-in: your connector privately asks the other person whether they want the introduction before putting you both on a thread. Nobody gets ambushed, and a yes means the person actually agreed to talk to you.

Give the connector an easy exit. If the other person declines or goes quiet, thank the connector and move to another path.

Ipsen uses a version of this move whenever she starts a search: she calls the people she already trusts and asks who the best person they've ever worked with is.

Borrow it as a job seeker. Ask the people who know your work to point you toward practitioners they genuinely respect at your target companies, and to put you on a thread when they're willing.

Write cold outreach that gets a reply

Cold outreach works when the note proves you picked the person for a reason. Build it from five parts:

1. Context: how you found them or why their work matters to you.
2. Relevance: one line about your related experience.
3. Specificity: one informed question or observation.
4. Small request: 15 minutes, a reply, or the name of the right person to contact.
5. Easy exit: respect their time and accept silence.

Ipsen gets asked whether cold LinkedIn messages are worth a founder's time, and her answer applies to job seekers too: reach out to people whose work impresses you, and lead with curiosity instead of an ask.

Her warning in the same answer matters too. People can tell when a message has an agenda behind it, and they close up as soon as they sense one. The same thing happens when a networking note is obviously a job request with a question attached.

Be selective. Five researched notes to relevant people leave you time to personalize each one and follow up properly, which a hundred templated messages never do.

Contact the hiring manager with evidence

Apply through the official channel first unless the posting says otherwise. Then send one short note to the likely hiring manager. Name the exact role, one outcome you've delivered that resembles the work, and one useful question.

Don't ask the manager to dig up your application or schedule an interview. Your job is to give them enough signal to decide whether a conversation is worth their time. If it is, they know how to make one happen.

Run a weekly relationship-led search

None of this works as a one-time push. Set a weekly target you can actually hit:

Track conversations and what you learned alongside applications. A good week can leave you with better market knowledge and stronger relationships even when no recruiter has replied yet. And when one of these paths turns into a scheduled interview, switch to the 24-hour interview prep plan.

Frequently asked questions

Should I contact a recruiter more than once?

One concise follow-up after five to seven business days is reasonable. If there's still no response, keep working other paths and other companies.

Can networking help after I already applied?

Yes. A conversation can add context to an application already in the system. Tell the person you've applied and focus on learning about the work.

Does cold outreach actually work for jobs?

It can, when it's selective, informed, and easy to answer. A relevant question or useful observation gets more replies than a generic request to pick someone's brain.

What should I offer when I have little experience?

Bring preparation, a specific question, and evidence of how you learn. A thoughtful project, analysis, customer insight, or clear connection to the company's problem can make you relevant.

How long should a networking message be?

Aim for 75 to 125 words. The reader should understand why you chose them, why the topic connects to you, and what small response you want.

The foot-in-the-door plan on one page