How To Find The Hiring Manager (With Examples)

You’ve found your dream job posting, tailored your resume and cover letter to fit the job requirements perfectly, then just crossed your fingers, and hit send. Now you need a way to boost your chances of getting your resume looked at and land the job.

There’s one simple trick job searchers often overlook when it comes to applying to jobs, especially for positions where it looks like it could be a perfect match. Sending a short follow-up email to a hiring manager to introduce yourself and highlight your enthusiasm for the position is a great way to get your application noticed.

It only takes minutes to draft an email to send to a hiring manager. You just need to let them know that you applied for a position at the company and you’re eager to learn more. You should include something specific about the role that excites you or why you’re interested in working for the company.

You can even make the email personal and try to build a relationship with the hiring manager. As long as you keep it concise and focus on the job opening, you’ll be sure to get the hiring manager’s attention and make them remember you.

But how do you find the hiring manager’s contact information? Getting the email or contact information for a hiring manager is the hardest part of this process, but the email writing is a breeze.

We’re going to walk you through some ways to figure out who the hiring manager is and how to get in touch with them. It might seem like a lot of extra steps just to send a short email, but that quick email can significantly increase your chances of getting hired.

What Is a Hiring Manager?

Hiring managers are crucial to the hiring process. They’re the ones who request a new hire, work with the team that’s hiring the new employee, and liaise with the human resources department to settle compensation and benefits.

A lot of responsibility falls on a hiring manager since they oversee the entire hiring process, from creating a job description to supporting the new hire during the first few months. Because of this, they’re extremely concerned with finding someone who not only fits the skill requirements but is also a good personality fit for the company.

As the person most invested in the hiring process, they typically have the biggest say in who’s hired. You definitely want to get on their good side and avoid their bad side at all costs. They are often the significant deciding factor in the hiring decision, though other people will weigh in as well. Sometimes they have veto power for a candidate that the hiring committee suggests, so getting their support is crucial to landing the job.

Hiring managers see tons of applications, so it’s essential to stand out and differentiate yourself from other candidates. Sending a quick introduction email is a great way to do this. Not only will you bring attention to yourself and your application, but you’ll have a chance to build rapport with this person and show them your personality.

How to Find the Hiring Manager of a Company

With all of the automation that the hiring process has, it can be a challenge to get a name or find the contact information of anyone involved in a company’s hiring process. Did you know that most companies don’t even involve humans in the hiring process until the second step? Often, companies use an applicant tracking system (sometimes shortened to ATS) as a first-round step to make sure a resume and cover letter have all of the skills listed that the employer is looking for.

All of this automation means it can be hard to identify a contact when you apply for a job, but on the other hand, increased technology use means you have more ways to find a hiring manager. Usually, with a little bit of digging and Google searching, you can quickly identify a contact at any company you apply to.

The most common way to find a hiring manager is through networking sites like LinkedIn. There are two main ways to find a hiring manager on a networking site.

First, you can do a people search for the company you’re applying to and any keywords associated with the department you’re applying to. For example, suppose you submit your resume and cover letter for a sales associate position at ABC Company. In that case, you can go to LinkedIn and search “sales director ABC Company,” and you might find the company’s director of sales or similar high-up position.

Or, you can do a business search and manually sort through the company’s employees. This method might give you a better sense of who works there in what positions and pick the best person to reach out to. If you use this method for the same sales associate position at ABC Company, you can search “ABC Company” on LinkedIn, then go to their profile. At the top of the page, there should be a link to see current employees, and everyone who has a LinkedIn profile that includes a current role at ABC Company will appear.

With either method, you can easily send a short message on LinkedIn and get yourself in front of the hiring manager. It’s a good idea to include your email address or phone number in your message so you can continue the conversion outside of LinkedIn.

You can also use the business search method to get in touch with the hiring manager if you’re unsure who it would be. You can reach out to an employee at the company and mention that you applied for a position and you’d like to reach out to the hiring manager. This is a great way to make sure you’re talking to the right person. If you’re lucky, you might even be able to score an introduction from your outreach directly to the hiring manager.

Another way to find a hiring manager is to do some digging with Google. Odds are the company you’re applying to has an “about us” or “team” page that shows who works at the company, especially for higher-up executives and managers. Just taking a look at the company’s site is a good idea and might lead you to a page with a directory.

If you can’t find anything like that on the company’s site, you can also try searching for the company and the position or department you’re looking for. For example, if you’re applying for a marketing coordinator position at XYZ Company, you can google “XYZ Company marketing director.”

Make sure you switch up your search terms if you don’t get it right on the first try. Other words like “chief marketing officer” or “marketing department” might get your better results. It might take you a few attempts to get the right search, but you should be able to find a hiring manager’s name that way.

A tried and true method that’s worked for years is just calling the company. While some employers might frown upon cold calling a hiring manager, there’s nothing wrong with giving the company’s number a call.

You shouldn’t be calling anyone’s personal number or office extension directly, but if there’s a corporate number available, it doesn’t hurt to talk to someone at the company. You can ask for the hiring manager’s name and find their details through a search or LinkedIn, but you shouldn’t ask to speak with them directly. It can be a bit jarring and off-putting to get a call out of nowhere.

Where to Find Hiring Managers

Once you have the hiring manager’s name, getting in touch with them is the easy part. There are two main ways to get the hiring manager’s contact information: through networking and searching.

If you decide to go through your network and find them, you might boost your chances to score an introduction. Otherwise, you can use LinkedIn to use your connections until you can get in touch with the hiring manager. Since you can see your connections on LinkedIn, you can try to go through your network until you reach the hiring manager.

Otherwise, you can try searching for their name and the company. Looking for a company directory is a good way to go. You should be able to find contact information for at least executive and director level employees, if not the hiring manager you’re looking for.

If you can’t find their information, but you see an email address for a colleague, you can try to replicate their email address for the hiring manager you’re looking for. For example, if you’re looking for the hiring director Susan Jones, but you find the email address for someone else in the company named Derek Smith, you can guess Susan’s email. If Derek’s is “[email protected],” then you can assume that Susan’s would be “[email protected]” and send the email.

Author

Amanda Covaleski

Amanda is a writer with experience in various industries, including travel, real estate, and career advice. After taking on internships and entry-level jobs, she is familiar with the job search process and landing that crucial first job. Included in her experience is work at an employer/intern matching startup where she marketed an intern database to employers and supported college interns looking for work experience.