How to contact a recruiter who you are not connected to on LinkedIn

Many recruiters with a premium LinkedIn account want top job candidates to be able to send them a LinkedIn InMail message them even if they are not 1st degree connections with each other.

To find a recruiter specializing in your industry, take these steps:

• Click the Advanced link to the right of the LinkedIn Search box and then select "People" on the left navigation bar.
• Type your industry in the Keywords box.
• Type the word "recruiter" in the title box and the select the "Current or past" box and select "Current".
• If you want to search for a local recruiter, put your zip code in the Postal Code box. 
• Click the blue "Search" button.
• Search the listings to try to find 1) Recruiters who specialize in your industry or field and 2) Recruiters who have a premium account icon next to their name (a gold "in" symbol) .
• Expand or modify your search by changing the entry in the Keywords box to a different industry or field, or by changing the entry in the Title box from "recruiter" to "recruiting manager", "talent acquisition manager", or similar titles.

Use LinkedIn's Advanced People Search feature to find recruiters specializing in your industry. Select those with the premium account "in" account.

To send a message to premium account recruiter, visit his/her profile and then ...

• Click the "Send a message" button (or sometimes it will say "Message [NAME]. 
• Complete the Open Link InMail template that pops up. Note that not every premium account holder has opted to allow people to send them free InMail messages. To reach those people for free, join a LinkedIn group that they are in and then send them a message from the Group Member list. Here's how.

Visit recruiters with a premium account and click Send Message or Message [NAME]. If they have allowed, it you can send them a message for free to express your interest in their open positions.

Considerations / Limitations

• If you have a Basic (free) account, you can purchase up to 10 InMail credits to reach non-premium recruiters. If you don’t get a reply to a particular message in 7 days, you can send another InMail — to another user — at no charge. After you’ve reached the maximum of 10, you will need to upgrade your account to send additional InMail to non-connections.
• If you have a premium account and want more credits than the number you've been allotted, you can continually purchase up to 10 more at a time.
• You don't need to use a paid InMail message to send messages to your 1st degree connections. To contact them, simply click Send a Message button on his/her profile.

Options to avoid paying or upgrading to send InMails

• Invite people to connect and include in your message the reasons for your invitation. While sending invitations is free, you may need to know his or her email address (Learn how to find email addresses) and you must limit your characters to 300.
• Seek out and invite people with “Open Networker,” “LION” (LinkedIn Open Networker) or big numbers after their name, such as “13,000+.” Such wording indicates that the person is willing to accept all invitations. Many recruiters are open networkers. Even though people state that they are willing to accept invitations, customize your invitation message to let them know why you want to connect. (Learn how to invite strangers to connect )
• Send a “Get Introduced” message to the person through your network instead of an InMail message. People with a free account can send up to five Get Introduced messages per month. (Learn how)
• Join LinkedIn groups where your target people are members. Learn what groups a person is by scrolling to the Groups section of their profile. Once you have been accepted into a group, you can send a message or invite to connect anyone in the group.

Reach out to Open Link recruiters!

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