14 Comments
 

An email never comes across badly if you write it correctly.

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
 
unslainAn email never comes across badly if you write it correctly.

Awful advice.

No, you should not email the CEOs/Presidents of banks.

 
CS Arb
unslainAn email never comes across badly if you write it correctly.

Awful advice.

No, you should not email the CEOs/Presidents of banks.

Why? If you write it respectfully and don't send some ridiculous email, then worst case scenario they ignore it. Seeing as the OP has no one else to contact it's probably his best bet. Are you saying he's better off sitting home and hoping that the firm telepathically figures out he's interested in working for them?

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
 
CS Arb
unslainAn email never comes across badly if you write it correctly.

Awful advice.

No, you should not email the CEOs/Presidents of banks.

On the contrary, the latter is awful advice.

The President of a Bank/Boutique where you want to get a job is an alumnus and you're not even going to make the attempt to reach out to him?

Ridiculous.

Remember, Presidents/CEOs ARE regular people and were most likely in the same shoes you are at one time.

A lot of these executives respond positively to young and outgoing individuals who have the courage to reach out to them for advice. The fact that he is an alumnus just makes it even more relevant.

It's the individuals who pass up these great opportunities that end up being sorry in the end. How do you think these executives actually became 'executives'? In all likelihood, they took risks and capitalized on opportunities.

 

Depends on the shop size. If it's a 5 person firm go ahead. If it's a pretty decent size, try to find someone who can refer or introduce you. Use your judgement. Don't pull a Maddalone.

 

Ignore the other guy and do it anyways.

You have no job so do whatever you have to to get someone's attention. The president isn't going to think of you as a tool or see you as desperate. He'll see you as an eager kid who wants a gig at his firm.

I've done this with boutiques before and gotten excellent responses. Plus, from my experience, I bet he's gotten other calls already.

 

I did this at a 15 man boutique bank in my area. Had a great conversation with the founder/president. There is nothing wrong with emailing the president at a small bank. In fact, you should probably target the presidents of the small banks. They are usually just the most senior banker anyway.

As it is, he will probably be the one doing the interviewing and making the hiring decision anyways. Go ahead and email him.

 
Best Response

You did hear about the 22 year old kid who emailed the CEO of Morgan Stanley and was totally chewed out for doing so, right? http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/striving-morgan-stanley-hopeful-sc… If the shop is small, then ok, you can try sending an email. But larger than 100 people or so means they probably have a dedicated recruiting team, and then your email is unlikely to help. Good news, though, is it's unlikely to hurt either. Even if you piss off the ceo, you're still just some random nobody to him, and he's got much more important things to worry about than whether you get hired. It's not worth his to tell HR not to hire you, let alone remember your name 5 minutes later. So sure, go ahead and send the email. Can't hurt, and there's a small chance it might help.

 

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