How not to cold call - nervous (almost) shit pants

I almost exclusively used emails. A phone cold call could be very high-risk if the person reacts poorly. Plus, an email gives the contact a chance to vet you, assuming you send a resume in the first email.

According to my brother (just got his internship at an IB from a non-target), you should always email when you're working with the big guys. And in doing so, you're just going to have to understand that you probably won't get responses. What that means is that you have to send follow-ups and in general try a lot of people.

Shoot a lot of darts and see what sticks

I think in general my friend messed up a lot. Who the hell has the nerve to ask an Invest Banker if they are "busy" haha. And on top of that you're right: the partner gave him two opportunities to progress with the call and ask about working for them. But I imagine my friend was too worked up to think it through.

Thanks for pointing that out! That was a mistake I didn't catch!

Don't be awkward, just laugh it off or whatever, say how much you appreciate whatever time either/or can give you, and then have a productive phone discussion.

If you mean will it be helpful in getting you an interview someday, probably not. Hopefully you're just gathering information, gauging your own interest, etc.

SmallUser:

Will this is call be helpful if I am a rising sophomore? I think it will be interesting! If he doesnt hate me......

Whats the problem here?

Man, when I saw the title of this post, I figured you had called an alumni whose listed number was a sex hotline that she operated on the side of her ST gig. Thanks for wasting 30 seconds of my life which I will never get back. Grow a pair.

If you're cold emailing, nobody's going to expect you to custom tailor each line of the email to the person. I wouldn't be too worried, and just brush it off like you're hustling.

Yeah, this is no biggie. 8 months ago I cold-emailed a Partner at a top consulting firm. No response.

Last 2 months I've been working with the same Partner on an intense project. She does not recall that I had cold-emailed her I'm sure, and I was happy to not bring it up.

Most hustlers go through this sort of thing - very normal, nothing to be worried or get awkward about. This is life, and you're trying to make a better one for yourself, like anyone.

If the emails themselves were reasonable (e.g. not a waste of their time), the fact that the two people have interacted with each other is no big deal.

I would cold email before cold call...via linkedin... a cold email directly to an analyst/associate/whatever is more effective than cold calling an assistant....

Got it, the linkedin thing I always found creepy..Is it creepy to randomely message someone?

What did you ask for initially? Did you visit or do the call on the phone? How did the call go??

Since I was running out of time and summer was approaching, I straight up asked if they were looking for an intern or if there is someone I could talk to about the firm, etc. Might not have been the best approach. You might want to go a different route. But at times when I did get bankers on the phone, etc, I would usually end up with interviews from a handful of the firms I called. If they said possibly or yes, I would forward them my resume and follow up in a week or two. I kept all my calls in an excel file. Make sure you write who you talked to, their personal line if you have it, what email, when to follow up, etc.

From my experiences: you well get told no a lot. I come from a semi-target, rising senior 3.4 GPA Finance Major. The most important thing that I've learned from this experience is to keep your head high and keep pushing at it. Seriously. Don't afraid to get hit because it's going to hurt.

Never cold called here, but cold e-mailing seems to work. Start with alum and then work your way to non-alum in something that your interested in (i.e. specific industry group in IB or desk in S&T). Since you are a sophmore, it would be a good idea to attend any FT recruitment sessions at or near your school in the fall. I made some excellent contacts that way.

if you cold call be nice to the EAs and assistants because if you don't treat them with respect you will never get thru and worst if they actually bother to take down your name and tell the MDs and VPs that you were a dick. The rationale is that if you are begging for a job or internship and already a fucking dick on the phone, how much worst will you be once you actually have a job here???

Cold email might be more effective, but be sure to keep it short and not overly specific. Don't cold email an MD or VP and ask for an internship at the industrial's desk, but rather ask for an appointment/call for career guidance and potential opportunities at XYZ firm.

You cold linkedin'ed boutiques or BBs? I would try to use the email format and guess, but idk if emailing is effective. Easy to ignore. Also, this week was July 4th so people are out..?

Use linkedin to get their names then plug those into the email format. Find the @firm.com by looking at their site for a general email like [email protected]. Often google searching the firms email ending like "@firm.com" or whatever will get you some email contacts.

Thanks!! Any suggestions for a typical email/how long to wait b4 a follow up?

I cold called, I interned and I became an analyst