LinkedIn gives you 300 characters for a connection note. That is roughly two sentences and a closing clause, which turns out to be the right size: long enough to prove you are a person with a reason, short enough that padding has nowhere to hide.
Whether you should send a note at all is genuinely debated, and nobody has published reliable acceptance-rate data either way, so ignore anyone quoting a precise percentage. The reasoning is enough. If the person might plausibly recognize you or your context, a note converts “who is this” into “oh, right.” If you are a complete stranger, a specific note is the only thing separating you from the bots. The one hard rule: never use the note to pitch. A connection request that asks for a job, a referral, or “just 15 minutes” is a cold email wearing a name tag, and it gets treated like one.
Below are twelve templates for the situations job seekers actually face. Every one fits under the limit with room to spare. Swap the bracketed details, keep the shape.
After meeting at an event
Use it when you exchanged actual words with the person, even briefly.
Hi Maya, we crossed paths at the product meetup on Tuesday. You asked the panel about pricing experiments, and I have been fighting the same problem at my company. Would be glad to keep the conversation going here.Personalize the one detail that proves you were there: the question they asked, the topic you discussed, or where you were standing when you talked.
After watching them speak
Use it when they gave a talk, panel, or webinar and you were in the audience, in person or online.
Hi Daniel, I watched your session on onboarding flows today. The point about cutting the second signup step is going to change how I plan next quarter. Connecting so I can follow what you share next.Personalize by naming one specific idea from the talk and what it changed for you. “Great talk” proves nothing; a specific takeaway proves attendance.
Cold but relevant
Use it when you have no shared context except that you work on the same problems.
Hi Priya, your name keeps coming up in the analytics community I read. I work on the same problems at a smaller scale, and your posts are the most practical ones I have found. Would like to have your thinking in my feed.Personalize with where you actually found them. People are curious about how they get discovered, and a real answer reads as honest.
Fellow alumni
Use it when you share a school and there is a reason beyond the school itself.
Hi Jordan, fellow State grad here, class of 2019. I am moving toward supply chain roles and your path from operations analyst to planning lead caught my eye. Glad to connect with an alum a few steps ahead.Personalize with their actual career path, not just the shared school. The school gets the door open an inch; the specific interest gets it the rest of the way.
Introducing yourself to a recruiter
Use it when a recruiter hires for your field and you want to exist in their network before you need them.
Hi Sam, I can see you recruit for data roles in Austin. I am an analyst with four years in healthcare, currently looking, and I would like to be on your radar for anything that fits. Happy to send a resume if that is useful.Personalize with your specialty and market in their language, meaning the words they would type into a candidate search.
A recruiter viewed your profile
Use it when someone in recruiting looked at your profile and you are openly searching.
Hi Alex, I noticed you viewed my profile this week. I am actively looking for product marketing roles, so if something prompted the visit, I would be glad to talk. Either way, good to connect.Personalize the role phrase to match your target exactly. This note only works if your profile backs it up, so run yours through the LinkedIn Profile Score before you send it.
After a job interview
Use it when the process is still running and you want the relationship regardless of the result.
Hi Rachel, thank you for the conversation on Thursday. The way your team handles code review stuck with me, and it made the role more interesting, not less. Whatever the outcome, I would be glad to stay connected.Personalize with one thing from the interview you genuinely kept thinking about. Do not ask about your status in the note; that question belongs in email.
Peer at a company you are targeting
Use it when you want to understand a company from the inside and are willing to say so.
Hi Chris, I am researching how support teams run at mid-size SaaS companies, and yours comes up often. No ask beyond connecting. Your posts about queue triage are the reason I found the company at all.Personalize with the thing that led you to them specifically. Saying “no ask beyond connecting” only lands if it stays true, so let them offer before you ask for anything.
Following their content
Use it when you have genuinely read or used their work and want it in your feed.
Hi Nadia, I have read your last few posts on school leadership and sent one to my principal, who now quotes it in meetings. I would rather follow your thinking here than keep finding it by accident.Personalize with proof of consumption: the post you shared, the advice you applied, what happened when you did.
Through a mutual connection
Use it when a real person suggested the contact and would confirm it if asked.
Hi Omar, Lena Fischer suggested I reach out after I told her I was moving into UX research. She said you made the same switch a few years ago and were generous with advice. Connecting here first, happy to say more if useful.Personalize with the mutual contact’s full name and the actual reason they made the suggestion. Never name-drop someone who would be surprised to hear about it.
Career changer to someone in the target field
Use it when you are switching fields and they represent where you are going.
Hi Grace, I am a teacher moving into instructional design, and your portfolio came up in a forum I trust. Connecting mainly to follow your work. If you ever write about how you built your first portfolio piece, I will read it twice.Personalize with your real starting point and where their work found you. Note the shape of the ask: it invites, it does not request a meeting.
Reconnecting with a former colleague
Use it when time has passed and you want the bridge rebuilt before you need to cross it.
Hi Marcus, it has been a while since the Riverside project. I saw the launch announcement last week and thought of the whole team. Would be good to be connected again, and congratulations on the director role.Personalize with the shared project and something recent from their life you noticed. If you reconnect only when you need a favor, they will notice the pattern, so send this one early.
The rules behind all twelve
Read the templates back to back and the shared skeleton shows: one line of real context, one line of honest motive, a closing that expects nothing. Every note passes what you might call the read-aloud test, meaning you could say it to the person’s face at a conference without wincing. That is the entire trick, and it is why generic scripts fail; they are sentences nobody would ever say out loud.
A few practical points before you start sending. First, the 300 character limit includes spaces, and several of these run close to 220, so check the counter before adding a flourish. Second, send requests to people, not in batches; five specific notes beat fifty generic ones on any timescale that matters. Third, when someone accepts, say thanks and then let it breathe. The worst move on the platform is the instant pitch after acceptance, which converts a new connection into a regretted one in a single message.
And before any of this, fix what they will see when they click your name, because most people check the profile before accepting. The profile optimization guide covers what needs attention in what order.
If you want a note built for your exact situation instead of an adapted template, the Connection Request Writer drafts one from the details you give it, and keeps it under the limit. For the bigger picture of how connecting fits into a search, from who to contact first to what to do after acceptance, the LinkedIn for job seekers guide is the place to start.