How Cold Email Got Me a Job Building Fortnite (And Why Your Approach Is Probably Wrong)

The three principles that turn ignored emails into job offers

The rejection email arrived at 2:47 AM on a Tuesday. “Thank you for your interest in Epic Games, but we’ve decided to move forward with other candidates.” It was my fourth rejection from the company in six months, and I was starting to think my dream of working on Fortnite was just that — a dream.

But instead of giving up, I decided to try something different. Instead of applying through the traditional channels, I spent three hours crafting a single cold email to someone at Epic Games. Not HR, not a recruiter, but a product manager whose work I’d been following.

That email landed me not just a conversation, but eventually a job building one of the most successful games in history. More importantly, it taught me that most people are approaching cold email completely wrong.

Since then, I’ve helped hundreds of professionals land incredible opportunities using the same approach. But first, you need to understand why your current strategy isn’t working.

The Reality Check Nobody Talks About

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: nobody is sitting in their inbox eagerly waiting to read your cold email. The person you’re trying to reach is probably juggling Slack notifications, managing a team, and staring at 197 unread messages.

Your email isn’t competing against other job seekers. It’s competing against urgent requests from their boss, meeting invites, and that newsletter they actually wanted to read.

This context changes everything about how you should approach cold outreach. If you’re sending long paragraphs filled with generic compliments and vague value propositions, you’re essentially asking busy people to do homework before they can figure out what you want.

“The best cold emails feel less like sales pitches and more like the start of a conversation with someone who gets it,” one hiring manager told me after I asked what made certain outreach stand out.

That insight shaped everything I learned about effective cold email.

Principle One: Concise Beats Comprehensive

Why do people think more words equal better cold emails? There’s this persistent myth that you need to pack everything about yourself into that first message — your background, your passion, your five-year plan, and your favorite coffee order.

That’s backwards thinking.

If you’re still using those 500-word cold email templates from 2008 as your blueprint in 2025, I’ve got bad news for you. The internet has trained everyone to scan, not read. Attention spans have shortened, not lengthened.

My rule is simple: if your cold email can’t fit in a tweet, it’s probably not good. This forces you to focus on what actually matters rather than what you think might impress someone.

The goal isn’t to tell your whole story in the first email. It’s to earn the right to tell your story in a follow-up conversation.

Consider this: which email are you more likely to respond to on a busy Thursday afternoon? A three-paragraph explanation of someone’s career journey, or two sentences that clearly state what they want and why it might matter to you?

Principle Two: Customized Beats Generic

Generic emails get generic responses. Usually, that response is silence.

Your job is to show the recipient that you’ve done the work and that you’re not taking their attention for granted. This isn’t just good etiquette, it’s smart psychology. The reciprocity principle suggests that when you put in visible effort for someone, they’re far more likely to respond positively.

But customization doesn’t mean mentioning their company name and calling it personal. Real customization means:

Mentioning something specific about their work that resonated with you. Not just “I love your company,” but “Your approach to reducing player toxicity in online games in your recent blog post made me think about my own experience managing community dynamics.”

Sharing genuine feedback or insight about a problem they’ve discussed publicly. If they’ve written about hiring challenges, offer a brief perspective from your experience rather than just saying you read their post.

Going beyond research to create something specifically for them. Record a short video response to their LinkedIn post. Build a simple document outlining your thoughts on a challenge they’ve mentioned. Show, don’t just tell.

The key is demonstrating that this email could only have been sent to them, not to fifty other people with similar job titles.

Principle Three: Compelling Calls to Action

Once your email is concise and personalized, it needs a clear reason for the recipient to engage. This is where most cold emails fail. They either ask for too much too soon, or they’re so vague about what happens next that responding feels like committing to an unknown obligation.

“I get dozens of cold emails asking for ‘advice’ or ‘a quick chat,’ but the best ones are specific about what they want and make it easy for me to help,” a startup founder shared with me recently.

Here’s how to make your ask compelling:

Reference any previous connection, however brief. “We met briefly at the product conference last month” carries more weight than any amount of flattery.

Leverage mutual connections tactfully. “Sarah Johnson suggested I reach out” isn’t name-dropping, it’s providing context for why this conversation makes sense.

Lead with your strongest proof point. Instead of listing all your achievements, highlight the one most relevant to their current challenges.

Use a single, specific call to action. “Can I send you more details about the user retention framework I mentioned?” is much clearer than “I’d love to chat sometime.”

And always provide an easy out. “No worries if this isn’t a good fit” removes pressure and makes responding feel like a choice, not an obligation.

The Advanced Playbook

Once you master the fundamentals, there are several advanced tactics that can dramatically improve your success rate:

Target senior people for better response rates. Counter-intuitively, executives often respond to cold outreach more readily than middle managers. They’re used to making quick decisions and have less fear about engaging with new connections.

Use multiple channels strategically. Don’t just send an email. Follow up with a thoughtful LinkedIn connection request. Comment meaningfully on their posts. Create multiple touchpoints that feel natural, not stalker-ish.

Think beyond job applications. The best cold emails often aren’t asking for jobs directly. They’re requesting informational interviews, offering to help with projects, or sharing insights about industry trends. Jobs emerge from relationships, not applications.

Build it into a daily habit. The professionals who see the biggest impact from cold outreach treat it like a skill to be developed, not a desperate last resort. Send one thoughtful cold email per day, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly opportunities start appearing.

Why This Approach Actually Works

The difference between successful and unsuccessful cold outreach often comes down to understanding what you’re really asking for. You’re not asking someone to hire you based on a single email. You’re asking them to spend thirty seconds reading your message and decide if a conversation might be mutually valuable.

That’s a much smaller ask, and it’s one that busy professionals can reasonably accommodate.

When I sent that email to Epic Games, I wasn’t trying to get hired in that first message. I was trying to start a conversation with someone whose work I genuinely respected. The job came later, after we’d established that we had aligned interests and complementary skills.

“The cold emails that work feel less like sales pitches and more like the beginning of a professional relationship,” another hiring manager explained to me. “They make me curious rather than defensive.”

The Compound Effect

Here’s what happens when you consistently send thoughtful, well-crafted cold emails: you build a network of people who know your work and think of you when opportunities arise. Even emails that don’t immediately lead to job offers often result in valuable connections, industry insights, or referrals to other opportunities.

The person who doesn’t respond to your email today might remember your name when a relevant position opens up next month. The connection you make through cold outreach might introduce you to someone else who becomes a crucial professional contact.

Cold email isn’t just a job search tactic. It’s a relationship-building tool that compounds over time.

The Question You Should Be Asking

Instead of wondering whether cold email works, ask yourself: are you approaching it as a numbers game or as a relationship-building strategy? Are you sending generic messages to hundreds of recipients, or crafting thoughtful outreach to specific people whose work genuinely interests you?

The professionals who succeed with cold outreach understand that it’s not about perfecting a template. It’s about getting genuinely curious about other people’s work and finding authentic ways to contribute to their success.

What’s the most interesting project someone in your target industry is working on right now? And what insight could you offer that might make their work a little easier or more successful?

That might just be the beginning of your next career opportunity.