Is Cold Emailing rude?
Just got off an Informational Interview call with someone at a BB I reached out to via cold email. Throughout the call I felt like they were shading me for reaching out. I told them who else I had spoken to in the team and they said, "oh okay, you are really proactive. while this is great great work, I think this can easily backfire on you. I would recommend doing warmer introductions, eg. Get introduced through someone" The problem with that is I don't have anyone from my school in that division already so this was my only shot.
Throughout the conversation, whenever I asked them for advice they told me you clearly have these great research skills so why don't you look for someone from your school in the division? They also said nobody in the team, even the ppl I have spoken would be able to vouch for me because they haven't worked w me professionally. While this makes sense, I thought the entire point of recruiting interns/grads was hiring people you don't know or have worked with before?
They also recommended me to reach out to higher level employees, like directors and then simultaneously said that I should be careful as I can be easily misconstrued in the wrong way.
I really wanted to know if I was doing something wrong, and if cold emailing is perceived in the wrong way by the S&T/ Markets divisions in Asia. I have spoken to 20+ people through this method and never had this experience until now. My only intention is to expand my network + improve my chances but this call made me feel like I'm screwed and all my previous efforts have been misdirected as well.
Some people are rude, or perhaps the person you spoke to was having a bad day. Cold emailing is how I built my entire network, so no it is not rude. As long as you are polite when you request 15-30 minutes of their time, you are making an offer. If they choose to except then they have no right to be rude, as they were never obligated to do so.
However, you cannot expect people to go to bat for you based on your work performance when you have never worked with them before. That's not why you get interviews through cold emailing. In my experience, I developed relationships with professionals and when the time came I "hinted" that I would really like to work for their group/firm/etc. Usually whomever you are speaking to will at least be up front at this point and say "yeah I think you would be a good fit, send me over your resume" or "we're not looking for interns right now." Developing relationships takes time, and I would often try and speak with certain bankers 2-3 times before "hinting" that I wanted to work with them.