Short answer: First work out who runs the hire: an agency recruiter, an in-house recruiter, or the manager themselves. Then look in four places: the ad itself, the job's poster on LinkedIn, the company's people page on LinkedIn, and recent "we're hiring" posts. Message the most likely person with a short note about why you fit.
Key points
- Someone always decides the shortlist. On LinkedIn, an agency ad or a careers page, the steps differ, but the person is often findable with a few minutes of searching.
- Check who hires before you hunt. If an agency runs the job, the agency recruiter is your contact, not the client's manager.
- The pile is real. Advertised jobs in skilled occupations drew 21.5 applicants each on average in early 2026, and employers judged only 5.2 of them suitable (Jobs and Skills Australia).
- Start with the clues in the ad, then LinkedIn's "Meet the hiring team", then the company's people, then hiring posts.
- Contact one or two people, not ten. A short note about a job you clearly fit is welcome; a mass message isn't.
Why find the hiring manager at all?
Because a person decides who gets an interview, and that person is reading a lot of applications. Jobs and Skills Australia surveys employers who've recently advertised. In the March quarter of 2026, advertised jobs in skilled occupations drew 21.5 applicants per vacancy on average. Employers judged 8.3 of them qualified and 5.2 suitable (Jobs and Skills Australia, Occupation Shortage Report, June 2026). LinkedIn found that 95% of HR professionals say most of the applications they get don't meet the listed criteria (ACS Information Age, January 2025).
So if you're one of the five who really fit, you're still sitting in a list with about sixteen people who don't. A short message to the right person moves you from "somewhere in the pile" to "someone I've heard from". It doesn't skip the process. It makes sure a person actually looks at you.
Australian employers say this works. In Jobs and Skills Australia's 2025 survey, most employers who were directly approached by a job seeker hired one of them (Jobs and Skills Australia, February 2026). That's most common in lower-skilled jobs, so treat it as a signal, not a promise. But the direction is clear.
If you keep applying for jobs you're qualified for and hearing nothing, we wrote about why that happens in why am I not getting interviews for jobs I'm qualified for.
Hiring manager, recruiter or agency: who are you looking for?
A hiring manager is the person the new starter will report to, who makes the final call. A recruiter runs the process for them: writes or posts the ad, screens applications and builds the shortlist. In Australia it helps to split recruiters in two.
| Who | Who they work for | How to spot them | Who to contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency recruiter | A recruitment agency, filling the job for a client | The ad is posted by a recruitment agency and often says "our client" | The agency recruiter. They own the shortlist, and the client will usually send you back to them |
| In-house recruiter | The employer itself (titles like Talent Acquisition Partner or Recruitment Advisor) | The ad is on the company's own careers page or LinkedIn page, posted by someone who works there | The in-house recruiter first, or the hiring manager if you have a clear reason |
| Hiring manager | The employer; it's their team | Sometimes named in the ad or as the poster; more often you have to work it out from the job title | The hiring manager, especially at smaller companies with no recruiter |
Recruitment agencies matter more for skilled jobs than the overall numbers suggest. Only 13% of Australian employers who recruited in 2025 used an agency or employment service. But almost a quarter (24%) of professionals recruited for hard-to-fill jobs were hired through recruitment agencies (Jobs and Skills Australia, February 2026). If you're mid-career in a specialist field, a lot of your contacts will be agency recruiters.
Step 1: Read the ad for clues
Most people skip the bottom of the ad. Don't.
- A named contact. Many Australian ads end with "For a confidential conversation, call Sam on…" or "Questions to…". That's your person. Agency ads very often name the consultant.
- A contact officer. Australian Public Service jobs list a contact officer. The Australian Public Service Commission describes them as "often a manager or supervisor" who is "there for the specific purpose of answering your questions" (APSC glossary). Call or email them before you apply. State and local government ads often do the same.
- The team and the reporting line. "Reporting to the Head of Data" or "join our Payments squad" tells you which manager to look for.
- Who posted it. "Our client" means an agency. The company's own name and logo, with the ad on their careers site, means in-house.
Step 2: Check the job's poster on LinkedIn
If you found the job on LinkedIn, open its details page and look for Meet the hiring team. When it's shown, it lists the job poster (often a recruiter or the manager), and LinkedIn says members can connect with and message the people in that section (LinkedIn Help). A #hiring frame on someone's profile photo is another sign they're the person.
Some jobs don't show the hiring team. Listings that come from a company's applicant tracking system or a job board feed often don't.
Step 3: Search the company's people on LinkedIn
Go to the company's LinkedIn page, open People, and search for the team or the title the job would report to. Some patterns that work:
- For a "Senior Data Analyst", search "data" and look for a "Head of Data", "Analytics Manager" or "Data Lead" in the same city.
- For a contract job in a project team, look for the "Program Manager" or "Delivery Lead" of that program.
- For any job at a mid-sized or large company, also search "talent acquisition" or "recruitment" in the same city. In-house recruiters are often the quickest reply.
Pick the person whose title, location and recent activity fit best. Check they're still at the company (their current job, not last year's).
Step 4: Look for "we're hiring" posts
Plenty of hiring on LinkedIn happens in posts, not listings: "My team is hiring a business analyst in Melbourne. DM me." Search LinkedIn posts for the job title plus "hiring" and your city, and sort by latest. A recruiter or manager who posted about the job in the past week or two is the warmest contact you'll find, because they've asked people to get in touch.
This is also how you find jobs that never become a listing at all. We go into that in the hidden job market in Australia.
Step 5: Jobs on SEEK and careers pages
SEEK ads show the advertiser, and agency ads usually name the consultant at the bottom. For an employer's own ad with no name:
- Note the company, team and location from the ad.
- Do steps 3 and 4 on LinkedIn for that company.
- If the company has its own careers page, check whether the same job is there with a recruiter's name.
Careers pages run on Greenhouse, Lever, Workday and similar systems rarely name anyone. The same LinkedIn search works.
Step 6: Pick one or two people and reach out
You don't need a list of ten. Pick:
- the recruiter running the job (agency or in-house), and/or
- the likely hiring manager, if there's no recruiter or you have a strong reason.
Then send a short note. The best one is three or four lines: the job, why you fit, an easy ask. We've written templates for messaging a recruiter for different situations: after applying, before applying, following up and contract jobs.
On free LinkedIn, a connection request with a short note works. LinkedIn limits how many notes free accounts can add each month, so save them for jobs you really fit. LinkedIn Premium's InMail lets you message people you're not connected with. Whether that's worth paying for is in is LinkedIn Premium worth it for job seekers in Australia.
By hand or with a tool?
| By hand | With Sidedoor | |
|---|---|---|
| Finding jobs that fit | Search the job boards and scroll LinkedIn posts yourself | Your search watches the recruiters in your field and job listings, and builds one feed of jobs that fit you |
| Who posted it | Check each ad and "Meet the hiring team" | Jobs from recruiters' posts show who posted them; "Someone hiring" when the poster isn't a recruiter |
| A job you found yourself | Steps 1 to 5 above, for each job | Paste the link into Job by link: who hires, likely hiring managers and in-house recruiters, with reasons (3 credits) |
| Contact details | Whatever the ad or profile shows | Emails and phones only when the person published them in their own posts, with a confidence label |
| Cost | Free, plus your time | Searches run from a pack; Job by link uses credits. Free month for beta testers |
Doing it by hand is free and works well for a handful of jobs a week. A tool earns its place when you're looking at many jobs, or when you keep finding good jobs and not knowing who's behind them.
Common mistakes
- Messaging everyone at the company. Two people at most. More than that looks like spam and gets passed around.
- Going around an agency. If an agency runs the job, contacting the client directly usually ends with "please apply through the agency", and can annoy both.
- Writing an essay or attaching your CV unasked. Short wins. Offer the CV if they want it.
- Contacting a manager who left. Check their current job before you write.
- Messaging for jobs you don't fit. Outreach works because it's relevant. Keep it for jobs where you'd make the shortlist on merit.
- Giving up after one silent message. One polite follow-up after about a week is fine. After that, move on and keep the contact for next time.
How Sidedoor helps
Sidedoor does the finding for you. Tell it the job you want and where. Your search finds the recruiters who specialise in your field, checks their LinkedIn posts every day, and combines them with job listings into one feed of jobs that fit you. Jobs from recruiters' posts show who posted them.
For a job you found yourself, or one in your feed with no contact, use Job by link. Paste a LinkedIn, SEEK, Greenhouse or Lever link, or paste the ad from any other site. In about 10 to 30 seconds it tells you whether the job is hired in-house, through a consultancy or by an agency. For in-house and consultancy jobs it suggests up to 3 likely hiring managers and up to 3 of the company's own recruiters, each with the reasons and a link to their LinkedIn profile. Sometimes the honest answer is that no one matched well enough. Each lookup uses 3 credits, and looking up the same listing again is free.
Sidedoor doesn't need your LinkedIn login, and it never applies or sends messages for you. It's in beta in Australia and New Zealand.