Mention consultants you talked to in the cover letter
Hello all. I am just wondering if it is appropriate to mention an acquaintance's name in the cover letter.
Over the years, I have either met at conferences or done informational interviews with consultants (from associate to partner) but I have not directly worked with them or been close so to speak. Is it appropriate to quote what they said and mention their names in the cover letter to demonstrate why I am specifically interested in their firm?
I know this is definitely not an endorsement but will it be bad if they do not even recall my name when asked? or I should just say I talked to "some consultants" in your firm when and where.
Thanks.
Wayne
It's totally appropriate to name drop, but you've hit it on the head: you only want to name drop if those people are going to promote you. You might as well think of it like an endorsement: If they say their name in your cover letter, would they be surprised? Would they remember you? The hiring manager will ping them and say, "Hey, this Wayne guy, how do you know him? Is he worth interviewing?" If the response is, "I don't know, why do you ask?" Then you've lost and shown that you can't network properly. However, if it's a "Yeah, I think he's fantastic, I've done some case practices and chatted with him and I think he'd be great here," then you have a lot better chance of getting the interview.
You can also mention that meeting A, B and C convinced you that company X had the kind of people you were looking for to start your career as they showed a mix of D, E and F [qualities].
It shows you invested time in meeting people/ researching the company without pretending to know them personally
I'd say it depends on the context in which you're mentioning the name. Definitely do NOT take some small interaction and try to blow it up into something much bigger than the actual relationship.
That being said, firms actively look to see that you've done your homework and have interacted with them. So saying that "Bob's comments on X and about Y at the firm at [insert your school]'s mixer event really enticed me about....". Same deal if you're mentioning some consultant telling you about their project experience and softly quoting that, etc.
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