Applying through job portals is often too passive.
You find a role that looks like a strong fit, spend time adjusting your resume, submit the application, and then wait.
Maybe a recruiter sees it.
Maybe an ATS rejects it because you did not guess the right AI filters.
Maybe you end up behind hundreds of other applicants.
For software roles you really care about, I think there is a better second step:
Apply normally, then send one short, relevant note to the person you would probably report to.
Not HR.
Not a recruiter.
The actual engineering manager, team lead, head of engineering, or department owner behind that specific role.
The message does not need to be clever or long. But it should be specific.
Before writing it, I usually do a bit of research:
what this person talks about online,
what projects the company is working on,
what the job post actually says between the lines,
and where my background connects to the role.
Claude is useful for this part. I use it to analyze the person’s public posts, the company’s recent projects, and the job description, then help turn that into a short message that does not sound like a generic cover letter.
Something like:
“Hi, I applied for the [role] today. I noticed the team is working on [specific thing from the job post or company project]. My background in [relevant experience] looks close to what you need. Sharing my profile here in case useful.”
That is much better than only waiting in the application queue.
The hard part is finding the right person.
So I made a small lookup for this: paste a job posting URL, and it tries to find the likely decision maker’s work email and LinkedIn.
Free, no signup:
https://www.dearhiringmanager.io
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