Start where people publish their own details
- The careers page and the job posting. Some list a recruiting address or a named contact.
- The company's team or about page. Small companies often list people with a contact address.
- Talks, podcasts and blog posts. Speakers and authors often add a way to reach them.
- A GitHub or personal site profile where the person chose to show an address.
- A hiring inbox such as careers@ or jobs@, when the company's own site publishes it.
Anything a person or company chose to publish is fair to use for a relevant, professional message.
Find a name on LinkedIn
LinkedIn rarely shows an email address, but it tells you who works at a company, what their title is and whether they hire. Search for the company plus "university recruiter", "technical recruiter" or "engineering manager". Note the name and the title, then find or infer the address with the steps below, or send a short connection note instead.
Work out the company's email format
Most companies use one format for everyone. If you know one real address, you can infer the rest.
Common formats, for Priya Nair at example.com
| Format | Address |
|---|---|
| first.last | priya.nair@example.com |
| first | priya@example.com |
| first initial and last | pnair@example.com |
| first and last | priyanair@example.com |
| first and last initial | priyan@example.com |
Find a real example first: a press contact, an author byline, a speaker page, a commit. Then apply the same format to your person. Without an example, a guess is close to a coin toss, and the company's own pattern always beats a general one.
Check an address before you send
One bounce is not a disaster, but a pattern of bounces hurts your sender reputation. Mailbox verification tools check whether an address exists without sending a message. Some domains accept mail for every address, which makes any check inconclusive. Send to your single best guess. Don't send the same message to every format at once.
Contact-data tools
Services such as Hunter, Apollo and Snov.io collect business email addresses found on the public web and offer them by company. They help when you have a name and a domain, and they usually show how confident they are. Free plans are limited and accuracy varies, so treat a result as a strong hint and check it.
What to avoid
- Buying email lists. They are often old, gathered without consent, and flagged by mail providers.
- Guessing a personal address (Gmail, Yahoo). Write to work addresses, for work reasons.
- Scraping websites or LinkedIn at scale. It breaks their rules and gets you blocked.
- Sending one message to five guessed addresses. It looks like spam, and it may reach people who have nothing to do with the role.
- Pretending to know them. Say who you are and why you are writing.
If you can't find an address
- Send a LinkedIn connection note, and a short message once they accept.
- Apply through the official portal, and mention it in a note to the recruiter on LinkedIn.
- Ask an alum or a mutual connection for an introduction.
- Write to the company's published hiring address and ask who handles interns.
How InternLaunch does it
InternLaunch outreach reads the company's own website and public job boards, looks people up in a contact database, and tells you where each result came from: verified, found online, published on the company's website, or a pattern guess. It never invents a person and never guesses a careers@ address. An address from the database is unlocked with a credit; what a company publishes itself, you can read for free.
Frequently asked questions
- Is it legal to email a recruiter you found online?
- Laws differ by country, and this is not legal advice. A short, relevant, personal message to a professional about a job is different from bulk marketing, which is what most email laws target. Keep it relevant, write to one person, say who you are, and stop if they ask you to.
- Which email format is most common?
- Both first.last@company.com and first@company.com are very common, and many companies use first initial plus last name. The company's own addresses, wherever it publishes them, are the best evidence.
- What if the address bounces?
- A bounce means the address doesn't exist or isn't accepting mail. Check the format against a real example from the same company, find the person on LinkedIn, or write to someone else. Don't send the same message to many guesses.
- Can I email a recruiter's personal Gmail?
- Don't. Write to their work address, which is the one they use for hiring. A personal address you found by guessing or by a leak is not an invitation.