Cold Outreach to Dutch Tech

The exact message structure I used after 47 cold LinkedIn messages to Dutch CTOs and engineering managers, written so it is short, honest, and easy to reply to.

Who this is for

Filipino devs in the Philippines who want a direct-hire, sponsored role in the Netherlands and are tired of waiting for recruiters to find them. This is the outbound side: you reaching out to the people who actually decide, not filtering the recruiters who reach out to you. If you have not applied anywhere yet, that is fine, this still works.

What this helps you do

Write a cold message that a busy Dutch CTO or engineering manager will actually read and reply to. Cold outreach is different from answering an inbound recruiter. With inbound, they already see a need and you are qualifying them. With cold outreach, you are interrupting someone who did not ask, so the message has to be short, specific, honest about your situation, and easy to say yes or no to. This gives you a structure to copy, not a magic line. Most messages still get no reply, and that is normal. I sent 47 to get the ones that mattered.

The message structure

A good cold message has five short parts and fits in the LinkedIn message box without scrolling. Keep the whole thing under about 120 words.

1. One specific line about them or their company. Name a real product, a recent post, an open role, or their stack. Not “I love what you are building”. Something only someone who looked would write. This is the line that proves you are not mass-spamming.
2. Who you are in one line. Your role, years, and main stack. “Senior frontend engineer, 8 years, React and TypeScript.” No life story.
3. The honest ask, with your situation stated up front. Say you are based in the Philippines and would need visa sponsorship for the highly skilled migrant route. Hiding it wastes both your time. Stating it early is a filter that works in your favor.
4. One reason you are worth a reply. A shipped result with a number, a relevant project, or a link to one real thing. Pick one, not five.
5. A small, low-pressure close. Ask one easy question or for a short call, not “please hire me”. “Is this something your team would consider, or can you point me to the right person?” gives them an easy out, which paradoxically gets more replies.

A fill-in template

“Hi [name], I saw [specific thing: your team is hiring a [role] / your post on [topic] / you use [stack]]. I am a [role] with [X] years in [stack], based in the Philippines, and I would need visa sponsorship via the highly skilled migrant route. Recently I [one concrete result with a number, or one link]. Is hiring from outside the EU something [company] does, or could you point me to whoever would know? Either way, thanks for reading.”

Who to send to and how

• Message the engineering manager, team lead, or CTO at smaller companies, not the generic careers inbox. At larger ones, an internal recruiter or talent partner is often the better door.
• Check the company is a recognised sponsor on the IND public register before you send. If they are not on it, a cold message will not change that, so spend your energy elsewhere.
• Send a few a day, personalised, not 50 copies of the same text. The whole point is that it does not read like a blast.
• If no reply after about a week, one short follow-up is fine. After that, move on. No reply is information too.

Common mistakes

• Writing a long paragraph about your dream of moving to Europe. They do not know you yet and it reads as pressure.
• Hiding the sponsorship and relocation part until later, then burning a real lead when it turns out they cannot or will not sponsor.
• Generic openers (“I came across your profile”) that prove you looked at nobody specific.
• Asking for a job directly instead of asking an easy question. A small ask gets a reply, a big ask gets ignored.
• Sending the exact same message to dozens of people. People talk, and it reads as spam.
• Messaging companies that are not recognised sponsors and expecting outreach to fix that.

What to verify

Confirm the company is on the IND public register of recognised sponsors yourself before investing time, since the register changes. Do not claim a specific salary figure in your message; if salary comes up, point to the current IND salary criterion for your age bracket and let the employer confirm it. Get any sponsorship, relocation, or cost promise from the employer in writing, and check current visa details on the official IND source rather than from forums or old posts.

Jake note

I came over by direct hire, not through an agency, and a chunk of that started with me sending cold messages because I got tired of waiting to be found. 47 messages, most ignored, a handful of polite no-thanks, and a few real conversations. That hit rate is normal, so do not read silence as failure. The two things that changed my replies were saying the sponsorship part in the first message and making the ask small enough that a busy person could answer in one line.