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Cold emailing non-alumni (random people)
 

prudentinvestor's picture
(Orangutan, 317
 
Points)
 on 8/21/12 at 12:27pm

I've been contacting alumni lately and had a lot of help. I've contacted very few (just started) non-alumns but can't help but feel I'm doing something wrong.

I usually keep my emails shorts. I usually introduce myself, explain my recent experience in 1 sentence and ask if I can speak to them briefly regarding advice and their backgrounds.

What would you guys do or adjust? How do you enthrall non-alumns into talking to you?

Beretta's picture

Unless you have some personal

ST
(Orangutan, 358
 
Points)
 on 8/21/12 at 12:32pm

Unless you have some personal connections to them (e.g. your dad's a client), they won't talk to you. 90% of people won't reply - actually, that's an understatement. More like 95%.

Of the 5% that reply to you, maybe 1% (aka just one guy) will vouch for you. But hey, sometimes you only need one guy.

petergibbons's picture

How do you feel about

CO
 
Points)
 on 8/21/12 at 12:33pm

How do you feel about homeless people bugging you for change? At least they probably need help more than you do, and that takes less time and effort.

You better be bringing something pretty great to the table if you're going to bother me randomly in real life. On WSO, I think that's kind of the understood point, and either I'll respond to PMs, or I won't. But if someone did this on LinkedIn then there's a 1% chance I'd respond.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of Starwood Points

notaspammer's picture

I am looking to RE finance,

RE
(Gorilla, 626
 
Points)
 on 8/21/12 at 12:41pm

I am looking to RE finance, but I email everyone. A guy from a target in the RE group at a top bank just forwarded my resume around for their analyst program, so don't limit yourself.

I pretty much just blast out tons of emails. Cast a wide net and you'll definitely find some helpful people. I say something along the lines of "hi my name is XX, I worked at XX this summer and am trying to transition over to (their industry), was wondering if you would be willing to take some time to talk about your experiences in the field, appreciate the advice and hope to hear back from you." I'd say my response rate is probably 15-20%. Also RE generally has need-based hiring and not structured programs, but a lot of the guys who are working at firms with structured analyst programs have offered to forward my resume.

I can tell a lot of these guys have never had a college kid cold email them before. It might be different for general IB/consulting judging from the posts on this site, but this is what I've experienced.

Anacott_CEO's picture

If they don't respond, I will

CF
(King Kong, 1,260
 
Points)
 on 8/21/12 at 12:44pm

If they don't respond, I will send them another email a few days later. If they still don't respond, shoot for someone else. The worst in when you know they read your email because they view your linkedin profile (after you don't look at theirs), but never give you a response.

I've gotten some good feedback and even have met some MDs at top MM firms. But I also call to "follow up on the email I sent" as well.

R0bin's picture

There's def. an art to

(Orangutan, 292
 
Points)
 on 8/21/12 at 2:37pm

There's def. an art to cold-emailing people with no visible connections. Just b specific with y u are connecting with him/her and only her. As opposed to some other random MD at the same firm. Response rates are low tho, def. below the 30% line.

Baby you're the perfect shape, baby you're the perfect weight. Treat me like my birthday, I want it this way and I want it that way. It makes a man feel good baby.

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