Show my personality or be professional? (cold outreach)
I’m from a non-target with little IB alumni, so networking’s been tough. I’ve been trying to make my cold emails stand out but struggle to find common ground on LinkedIn.
I’ve got two versions: one standard and one more personal that fits me better (I’m into hiking, travel, etc.). I don’t want to sound too casual, but I also hate the robotic tone most people use.
Curious what others think: is it better to show some personality in cold emails, or keep it strictly professional for first outreach?
Would you send the more personal one, or is that risky if it’s going to an analyst/associate you’ve never met? How do you show personality without losing professionalism in these outreach emails?
Generic
Hi XYZ,
I'm Mr. Moe, student at the University of XYZ. I'd appreciate the opportunity to learn about your experience in investment banking and any advice you might have for someone pursuing a similar role.
I'm hoping to be in post-graduation and I'm interested to hear what you've enjoyed or disliked about living there.
If you're available this week or next, I'd be grateful for a quick call. Please let me know a couple of times that work best for you and I can send a calendar invite. I've attached my resume for context.
Best,
XYZ
More Personalized?
Hi XYZ,
I'm Mr. Moe, student at the University of XYZ. I'd appreciate the opportunity to learn about your experience in investment banking.
Outside of school, I love spending time outdoors and often go hiking. I’m hoping for a change of scenery after graduation and would love to be in [their city]. I’d be interested to hear about some of your favorite things to do there.
If you're available this week or next, I'd be grateful for a quick call. Please let me know a couple of times that work best for you, and I can send a calendar invite. I've attached my resume for context.
Best,
XYZ
Other people may have different opinions, but I wouldn't have a cold outreach focusing on what you do out of the classroom because in the nicest way possible, no one you cold outreach to has any connection with you so it's pretty unlikely they care that you like to hike. Different story if it's an alum and you both were in the same club or played the same sport, but if I got that email, I'm in NYC and don't hike, I'm not responding. Also, say I like going to bars, I'm not going to spend 15-20 minutes chopping it up about my favorite bars with someone I don't know who isn't in that city.
Instead, look at making yourself stand out with the subject of the email or try to hook them in by mentioning something either the person or their firm / team did. For example, you could open with your intro - my name is xx I'm a senior at xx and I'm heavily interested in pursuing a career in xx. I saw recently that your team led the financing for xx recently, I'm curious to hear (insert specific question or thing regarding the deal).
Remember when you're doing these, usually bankers are taking these calls / coffee chats as literal favors to you. They already have plenty of friends (at least most do haha) and are not looking to take 20-30 minutes to talk about what they do in their free time with a college student who they have no relation or association with. That's not to say you can't be personable on the call and try to relate there because from personal experience that helped me get my current job, but it won't help in the opening email.
At the end of the day, you should be trying to learn from these calls to get more comfortable talking shop, not talking about personal lives, so I would focus on that. Bankers generally like to talk about themselves / what they do, so I would keep hammering away on the deal side. Lever what you can find in your own research, stand out by being super targeted with these emails (everyone on the desk gets so many copy and paste general emails and linked in messages) - if you can be specific and show you at least put in the effort to learn / research certain deals, that's standing out on its own.
Makes sense, and I appreciate the advice.
Does the time finding deal specific hooks actually make it worth it though? There's always the chance someone doesn't respond, and I'd be using time I could spend more productively.
I've been using LinkedIn and from what I've seen most people don't even list their group. Any sites better for finding peoples groups that also lists their contact?
That's a how bad do you want it question at the end of the day. You talked about finding a way to make your email stand out, that's one way to do it. The best way to network is with alum as they were in your shoes and will be the most inclined to help, the second is with people that have something in common with you - i.e. you're a D1 college baseball player and so are they, the third is by impressing them with your knowledge or effort (researching actual deals they've done or even just deals done in the industry - ideally not the most talked about ones that anyone who checks CNBC will know front to back).
Being brutally honest, you're in college and have an insane amount of free time - I worked, had a full class load and still made plenty of time to hang out with friends. Your time is a lot less valuable (not in a condescending way just in a surplus aspect) than the analyst / associate / VP on the desk you're trying to network with.
There's no easy way to network and yes it sucks not getting responses but everyone has to do it, and if you actually want to succeed you won't worry about it being a waste of time when you definitely have 30-1hr of free time per day that you'd be playing video games or scrolling reels where you could do some research.
They might not have their ultra specific group but a lot of them will have their teams on LinkedIn - IB at JPM (look up some recent deals that JPM has done) or IB - TMT at Citi (you can get ultra specific there). It's all there for you, just gotta put in some effort.
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