Referral Request and Cold Email Templates for Job Seekers

Freshers and early-career professionals who ask for referrals or write to hiring managers often send long, vague messages ("please refer me for any role") that busy employees ignore. These 24 short templates ask for one specific role, give the other person text they can paste straight into a referral form, and tell you when to follow up and when to stop.

What's inside

• Referral-and-Cold-Email-Templates.pdf: a 16-page A4 guide. Four method pages cover whom to ask and in what order, finding the job ID, the 3-line fit summary, length limits, timing, a weekly pace and the follow-up rhythm, plus do's and don'ts. Then a filled-in worked example (fictional) and all 24 templates.
• Referral-and-Cold-Email-Templates-v1.0.docx: the same 24 templates in Word, with [bracketed fields] to replace.

The 24 templates, each with a subject or opening line, the message and a one-line "why this works":

• 8 referral requests (R01–R08): alumni you have met, a senior you have never met, an ex-colleague, a warm introduction through a friend, an employee met at an event, an employee found on a professional network (with a job ID), an intern moving to a full-time role elsewhere, and a returning professional writing to a former manager.
• 8 cold emails and messages (C01–C08): a hiring manager for a posted role, a hiring manager with no posted role, a start-up founder, a consultancy recruiter, a team lead after their talk or blog post, a 15-minute informational chat with an alum, a short connection note, and a portfolio-led message for design roles.
• 6 follow-ups (F01–F06): no reply after 5–7 days, the final follow-up, after they agree to refer you, a status check after the referral, after a rejection, and a thank-you after an informational chat.
• 2-part make-it-easy kit (K01–K02): a referral packet note (role, job ID, link, three fit lines, resume file name, application status) and a one-paragraph self-introduction.

How to use it