The only part that I hesitated with was the part about getting through to real people.
After reading a post like this, not sure how hiring managers (or their team) are going to feel about getting inundated with emails from candidates. After all, that exact use case is why we have recruiting departments to begin with.
I would tweak it and say use your network to get in touch with real people. The effects of getting a million emails from candidates might be blunted a bit if they are coming from someone you actually know.
My sense is that it's just a good way to annoy people whose job isn't hiring. At best, you're risking annoying someone who is busy (and your email being deleted with no reply), at worst, you're actively penalizing yourself if you are demonstrating that you aren't willing to go through the standard hiring process that the company uses. (For other terrible ways that job applicants try to "stand out", Ask A Manager is a veritable goldmine[0]).
The fact that his response rate when from < 5% for "applying the right way" to 22% for "maybe you upset a hiring manager" suggests his new approach, in spite of your reservations, is better for cases where you don't know anyone who can give you a warm introduction to a given company.
If anything, assuming most companies have an 'employee referral' program, emailing a random non-recruiter may have the additional advantage that, for no cost to you, someone at that company becomes incentivized for several thousand dollars to lobby for you.
It's very much a tragedy of the commons scenario, though: if one person emails a random within the company, they're going to stand out, maybe even get put in as a blind referral. If everybody starts doing this, then it's just spam, and the emails are more likely to get dropped on the floor.
This is actually a very good point. Having an incentivized advocate really skews things in your favor and many companies have such programs in place to bring in new hires...
Alternately, it suggests that people getting emails like this should be sure to send them to Recruiting with a "Could not follow instructions, do not hire" note.
The only part that I hesitated with was the part about getting through to real people.
After reading a post like this, not sure how hiring managers (or their team) are going to feel about getting inundated with emails from candidates. After all, that exact use case is why we have recruiting departments to begin with.
I would tweak it and say use your network to get in touch with real people. The effects of getting a million emails from candidates might be blunted a bit if they are coming from someone you actually know.