We've all heard that saying, "Your network is your net-worth."
But what does it actually mean?
Your network is your ultimate tool in your career - it's what leads to referrals, then interviews, and hopefully job offers.
So, how do you get it started?
Defining your network
Literally anybody that you've ever met, no matter at what capacity, is in your network. Family, family friends, high school friends, professors, dormmates, classmates, Tinder matches, you name it. To get you started, I challenge you to a quick task that Databricks' Chief People Officer had me do while just starting my career: make a list of 50 people that are in your network. These should be people you've been friendly with in the past.
Scaling your network
While you may have some great professionals in your "default network" (people you have met naturally), that unfortunately isn't enough. The chances of you knowing someone at every company/team you apply for are slim, so to get the opportunity to be referred to a job, you must step outside of your horizons and manually expand your network. The best "bang for your buck" method for doing this is through cold messaging: finding someone you hardly know that's doing what you want to do and forming a personal connection.
Cold Messaging Step 1 - Sourcing
Finding people to cold message sounds simple, but there are a lot of small details you should be aware of to maximize your chances of getting a reply, making the personal connection, and getting that referral. LinkedIn is your best friend here. You can easily filter that work in the exact role and company you're interested in. However, it's not the best use of your time to just mass-message the top results from these searches. Prioritize reaching out to people by how much common ground you have with the person. Areas of common ground are things such as:
- University*
- Organizations/Companies* (i.e. alumni of an organization or company you're involved with/worked for)
- Mutual connections*
- Hobbies (people will often mention their hobbies somewhere on their LinkedIn, most commonly in the "About" section)
- General interests (i.e. if you both have a passion for non-profit work)
- Prior experience* (i.e. if you both studied abroad in the same country)
* Indicates areas that you can filter by on LinkedIn searches
Read that person's LinkedIn profile before reaching out to them. It'll help you craft an attention-grabbing and unique introductory message. Highlighting things you may have in common will help that person feel much more comfortable with talking to you.
Cold Messaging Step 2 - Method of Contact
You may think that LinkedIn is the best way to contact people, but not everybody intently checks their LinkedIn. It's full of spam, and your message may not ever be seen. One thing that people always check is their work email. Reaching out to people this way almost guarantees your message is seen. There are a couple of methods I've used to get work emails:
- Clearbit
- Clearbit offers a free GMail plugin (with limited searches) that enables you to search for emails based on company, name, and even a specific role. It's not always up-to-date, but this product provides a quick and easy way to get emails.
- Plug-and-chug
- Companies utilize the same naming convention for their emails for every employee. Thus, if you know the email structure for a company (i.e. firstname.lastname@company.com), then you can plug in the different names of the people you've found on LinkedIn. This works about 80% of the time.
Cold Messaging Step 3 - Crafting your message
When reaching out to someone on LinkedIn, it is absolutely necessary to send your connection request with a personalized note. Use this framework to craft notes and stay within the 300-word limit:
- Brief introduction
- Why I'm reaching out OR pointing out commonalities
- Call-to-action, emphasizing my desire to learn
Example:
Hi [Name]! My name is David, and I'm a 3rd year Economics/Statistics student @ Cal Poly SLO. I recently learned about [company] and the hyper-growth stage it is beginning to experience. I would love to connect with you and learn more about your time @ SLO and your career path so far!
The third sentence is perhaps the most important, especially if you are a student. This is what I call the "learn card." I've found that every professional has some desire to help students because they were once in the same shoes and now understand how much they can provide in a young student's career.
If you are able to contact someone via email, you have a lot more room to craft your message. However, you have to keep the message short, sweet, and actionable. Using the same framework as above:\
Hi [Name],
My name is David Lee, and I am a second year student at Cal Poly SLO, studying Economics/Computer Science/Statistics (similar to what you did at SLO). I wanted to reach out to you as I am very interested in starting my career off in [Industry] and given that Cal Poly gets very little exposure to the industry, finding a network to learn more is quite difficult.
I know that you are probably quite busy throughout the week, but I was wondering if you might have 15 - 30 minutes to chat about your time at Cal Poly and your journey to [Company/Role]?
"Why [Industry/Company/Role]" for me:
- The high-level exposure and learning opportunities in consulting roles are second to none.
- I love being able to approach any business and provide instant value.
- [Industry/Company/Role] allows people young in their careers to drive business strategy and have real impact.
A bit more about me:
- I am the Managing Director of Mustang Consulting, Cal Poly's student-ran, pro-bono strategy consulting group. We work with businesses around the US on 10-week long engagements, and I lead our firm's development efforts internally and externally.
- This past summer after my Freshman year, I interned with Adaptive Insights, working on functional software implementations and process migrations for the company's enterprise customers.
- With Poly Canyon Ventures, a student-ran, non-profit Venture Capital firm, I lead consulting projects for our portfolio companies here in SLO.
Thank you so much for your time and have a great rest of your week.
Providing that information about you and why you are interested in a specific company/role (the two bullet point sections) shows that you are well prepared and won't waste the person's time. This does make the message a bit long, but since it comes after the call-to-action, it can be seen as optional.
Note that the call-to-action on email is slightly different than on LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, I specifically ask for a connection whereas on email I ask to chat over the phone. The reason for this is because of LinkedIn's character limit. Asking to chat on LinkedIn should be done in a follow-up message.
Cold Messaging Step 4 - Following Up
Following up is the most important step in this process. Some people don't follow-up because they don't want to be "annoying," but there's really nothing to be afraid of. Remember, you've still never met this person, and they can't blame you for wanting to learn. The worst case scenario is that he/she/they say no or ignore your message again.
The timetable for following up differs per each method of contact:
- LinkedIn - follow-up after the person accepts your connection request, thanking the person and asking for the chance to chat. If you receive no response to this, follow-up after about 4-5 business days.
- Email - follow-up after about 4-5 business days.
All you need to say in this message is "Just wanted to follow-up with this. Thanks!" The overall purpose of the follow-up is to push a message to the top of someone's inbox because he/she/they may have been busy at the time they initially saw your message.
A note on timing: When cold messaging someone, try sending all your messages either in the morning (i.e. 8am) or around lunch time (11:30am - 12:30pm). People will likely not be in meetings at these times and are checking their email/LinkedIn. If you aren't an early riser, schedule send your email.
Warm Introductions
Regardless if you follow my step-by-step guidelines, a response to your cold message is not guaranteed. At the end of the day, you're still a complete stranger to this person.
However, as you start growing your network, you'll start to see you have lots of mutual connections with the people you're reaching out to. If your mutual connection with someone knows that person (i.e. has spoken to them for more than 30 minutes before), then you can ask your mutual connection for a warm introduction.
Closing Thoughts
I want to re-emphasize that cold messaging does not always get replies. My reply rate has probably been about 20% while utilizing these strategies, 10% when not. Cold messaging really is a shot in the dark, so I hope you utilize the strategies we discussed to maximize your chances of a reply and/or start getting warmly introduced to people. If you're a student, take advantage of your time networking because when you start working full-time, the "learn card" is not nearly as effective.
Now that you know how to reach out to the people that are doing what you want to do, you might be wondering, what do you do next? Check out my other posts for that.