LinkedIn Recruiter Outreach

Find and connect with technical recruiters at target companies who are hiring in the user's region.

Prerequisites

• LinkedIn MCP — get_company_profile, search_people, connect_with_person
• Mercury CLI — mercury outreach check|log|budget for blacklist gating, attempt logging, and InMail-credit budgeting (see §3b, §3c, §6)

Workflow

1. Get Company URN IDs

LinkedIn's people search requires numeric URN IDs for the current_company filter:

get_company_profile("airbnb") → references.about → find company_urn → value: "309694"

Plain-text company names are silently ignored by the filter — always use URNs.

2. Search for Recruiters

search_people(
  current_company="{URN_ID}",
  keywords="recruiter engineer {country/region}"
)

Variations to try if results are sparse:

• "technical recruiter {country}"
• "talent acquisition engineer {country}"
• "sourcer engineer {region}"
• "tech recruiter Latin America" (for LatAm roles)

3. Prioritize Results

Rank by these criteria (in order):

1. Same country/city as user (they recruit locally)
2. 2nd-degree connection (can connect directly with note)
3. Mutual connections (warm path, higher accept rate)
4. Title explicitly mentions engineering/technical (not generic HR)
5. Profile snippet mentions the target region (e.g., "hiring in Brazil")

Deprioritize:

• Recruiting Coordinators (limited decision-making power)
• Leadership/Executive recruiters (wrong level for IC roles)
• 3rd+ degree with no mutuals (low accept rate)

3b. Blacklist check — skip anyone already blocked for THIS company

Before drafting or sending anything, gate each candidate against Mercury's outreach memory. A block is scoped to (person, company URN) — someone you already pestered at this company is off-limits here, but fair game once they move elsewhere. Always resolve the company URN first (§1).

mercury outreach check --username "{linkedin_username}" --company-urn "{URN}"

• Exit 0 / "OK" → proceed.
• Exit 1 / "BLOCKED: …" → skip this person for this company and tell the user why (the reason + cooldown date are printed). Do not re-invite. If they also show as a 1st-degree connection who simply hasn't replied, that's still a block — don't double-message.

This prevents re-pestering people who ignored a prior request and keeps your accept-rate (and reputation) healthy.

3c. Choose the cheapest effective channel (cost-aware)

Outreach has two separate budgets: the weekly connection-invite limit (~100/week, free) and scarce paid InMail credits. Prefer free paths and only spend a credit when there's no warmer route. Check the InMail budget with mercury outreach budget before considering InMail.

Priority order:

1. 1st degree → free direct message.
2. 2nd degree → free connection request + note (uses the weekly invite budget, not an InMail credit). This is the default for recruiter outreach.
3. 3rd+ degree, Open Profile → free InMail (no credit spent).
4. 3rd+ degree, high-value, no warmer path → spend 1 InMail credit — but only if credits_remaining − reserve_floor ≥ 1. Otherwise seek a mutual-connection intro or queue the person until fresh credits.

Surface the chosen channel + cost to the user; never exceed the reserve floor.

4. Draft Connection Notes

Constraints:

• Max ~300 characters (LinkedIn truncates on mobile)
• Must be specific (company + role type + your signal)
• No fluff ("I'd be honored to connect with you")
• Don't ask "are there openings?" — assume there are (you saw the listings)
• Never restate what LinkedIn already shows on the request UI — the recipient already sees your shared/mutual connections, their own title, and the connection degree. Writing "we share mutual connections (X, Y)" is redundant filler that reads as a templated mail-merge and wastes the ~300 char budget. Spend those characters on intent + why-them instead.
• Lead with intent + why-this-company, not a résumé dump. A short stack signal is fine, but the note's job is to say what you want and why they're a fit — not to list everything on your profile (they can click through).

Template:

Hi {Name} — I'm {User}, a {role/specialty} engineer ({1-line stack signal}). {One concrete reason THIS company/team fits — e.g. "GitLab's all-remote engineering culture is how I want to work" or "you hire backend across LATAM & the Americas"}. Would love to connect about {role type} roles.

The "why-them" clause is the highest-leverage part. Pull it from the company profile (all-remote, region focus, growth signal) or the recruiter's own headline ("you recruit backend across the Americas"). Skip it only if you genuinely have nothing specific — a generic note still beats a templated one.

Adapt per company:

• DoorDash: "growing the SP engineering hub"
• Airbnb: "building out the engineering hub in Brazil"
• Uber: "hiring engineers in Brazil"
• Brex: "hiring engineers in Brazil"

Level calibration:

• If user doesn't identify as Senior, omit "Senior" from role type
• Use general terms: "Backend Engineer roles", "engineering opportunities"

5. Send Connection Requests

connect_with_person(linkedin_username="{username}", note="{tailored_note}")

Rate limiting:

• Max 10-15 connection requests per session
• Space them out if sending many (LinkedIn may restrict)
• If status returns "already pending", note it and move on

6. Persist to Mercury

After each connection request is sent, record it in the Mercury database via the CLI (this powers the dashboard):

mercury recruiter add \
  --name "{Name}" --company "{Company}" --username "{linkedin_username}" \
  --title "{Title}" --location "{City}" --degree "{2nd|3rd}" \
  --status pending --note "{internal tracking note: mutuals, why-them, region}"

This --note is your private Mercury record (recording mutuals here is useful for follow-up context) — it is NOT the LinkedIn connection note.

Also record the outreach attempt in the relationship-memory log, scoped by company URN. This is what powers blacklist checks (§3b), the follow-up cadence, and the Outreach dashboard. Do this after every send:

mercury outreach log \
  --username "{linkedin_username}" --name "{Name}" \
  --company-urn "{URN}" --company "{Company}" \
  --channel connect_note \
  --source-skill recruiter-outreach

• For a 1st-degree direct message, use --channel message.
• For an InMail that spent a credit, use --channel inmail --cost 1 (this decrements the tracked budget and opens the 90-day refund window).
• A freshly-logged attempt starts in state invited and the tracker will compute its follow-up/withdraw due-dates automatically.

When a recruiter accepts or replies, update both records:

mercury recruiter update --id {id} --status accepted   # or: replied | interviewing | closed
mercury outreach update --id {attemptId} --state accepted   # or: engaged (on reply)

Marking engaged on a reply also refunds an InMail credit if one was spent within the 90-day window.

Log the outreach wave as an activity entry (always pass --kind — a bare mercury activity log silently inserts an empty, uncategorized row):

mercury activity log --kind outreach --skill recruiter-outreach \
  --summary "Sent {N} requests to {companies}"

Other useful kinds: recruiter_update (status change), outreach (requests sent). Add structured data with --payload '{"recruiter_id":N,"event":"..."}'.

If the mercury CLI isn't installed, fall back to appending a row to the Recruiter Outreach Tracker table in the user's journal markdown.

7. Present Results Table

8. Follow-up Guidance

Provide the user with:

If accepted but no reply (wait 3 business days):

Thanks for connecting, {Name}! I'm {User} — {Role} at {Company} ({City}), {stack}. Interested in engineering roles at {Target}. Happy to chat if there's a fit.

If no response after 1 week: Move on. Don't double-message recruiters.

Gotchas

1. URN IDs are required — current_company="airbnb" returns unfiltered results (silently ignored)
2. Some company pages are broken (e.g., Brex returns "Page not available") — fall back to keyword search without company filter: search_people(keywords="Brex recruiter engineer Brazil")
3. Recruiter titles vary: Sourcer, Technical Recruiter, Talent Acquisition, Recruiting Coordinator — all valid but prioritize Sourcers and Technical Recruiters for IC roles
4. "Message" button vs "Connect": 3rd+ degree shows "Message" (uses InMail credits) or "Follow". "Connect" with note is preferred for 2nd-degree.
5. Diversity of time zones: US-based recruiters covering LatAm are common at big tech — don't skip them just because they're not local
6. Don't restate auto-shown info in the note: LinkedIn already displays your mutual connections, the recipient's title, and the connection degree on the request UI. Restating "we share mutual connections (X, Y)" is redundant and looks templated. Only reference shared context LinkedIn does NOT surface — e.g. "we both worked at Smart BR", "met at {conf}", "I follow your posts on {topic}". When prioritizing recruiters, mutuals still matter (warmer accept rate) — just don't spend note characters announcing them.