Is it OK to email multiple people at the same firm?

Hi,

So I have been trying to networking into boutiques and sent two emails to two people at senior positions last week, one got back to me and asked for my resume. I sent it to him and haven't heard anything since then. I will send a follow up email tomorrow but was wondering would it be ok if I reach out to other senior people at the same firm or is it best to just limit to a few? I know it's generally not a good thing to reach out to a lot of people at the same time and it's best to ask for advice from people who has something in common with you, but since you email a few, your chances of getting responses are also greatly reduced, so just not sure how to approach this thing here.

Thanks, any insights would be greatly appreciated!

 

Definitely OK in my experience. I've done it multiple times, especially since it's a waste of time to wait a week before emailing your next (potential) contact at the firm. As long as it's not 10+ people nobody cares, in fact, saying "I'll talk to Jimmy John at your firm next week" in your call shows interest in the firm.

 

It's ok, but like others have said, make sure you don't go overboard. We do talk about you amongst ourselves and the kids that emailed every fucking associate and analyst in the office are not viewed favorably. I would say as a general rule, the higher you go the fewer people you should email and the stronger your introductory link to them should be if you want success.

 

Thanks for the great advice!

But what do you mean by"the higher you go, the stronger your introductory link to them should be"? I usually pick someone in senior positions who share something in common with me and I would state that fact in the introductory email(whether asking for informational interviews or directly ask for internships), do you think that's fine or is there anything I should improve on to make my emails "stronger"?

Also, I would directly ask for internships when I send emails to boutiques or smaller firms (11-50ppl), but would request a brief meeting for coffee or informational interviews for advice if the firm is a bit bigger than that. Do you think I am taking the right approach here? Some people advise that "don't come up and ask for internships directly", I understand that but my logic is: when you are a director working for a boutique you are probably busy pitching deals and wouldn't want to sit down with college student for 20 minutes for coffee, so I thought it's better to just cut to the chase and directly ask for what you want(stating why I am qualified and attaching my resume in the email, etc)

However, I am not sure if I am doing the right thing here, what would be your recommendation?

Thank you.

 

If you are trying to contact a VP and the only thing you have in common is the same school you have a high chance he will respond to you. If you are trying to contact an MD who isn't involved in alumni activities at all and graduated before you were born, you're probably going to be ignored.

I would not begin the conversation asking about an internship. If someone starts asking me about internships out of the blue my immediate response is "Who the fuck is this kid and does he not realize I get a hundred linkedin messages a day from people just like him?" You need to connect with someone before even approaching the job question. That is something you can easily cover in a quick phone call or coffee chat.

 

If it's a cold email then I would suggest emailing one person of each department. If you email an analyst in M&A and they have a couple busy days ahead, and are feeling helpful, they may refer you to another analyst in M&A anyway.

If you visited a firm and had the opportunity to meet multiple people then I would e-mail all of them, especially if they're all different levels of seniority.

 

I tried to stick with Associates, because they have some pull but aren't too high up (at least in smaller/mid market banks), or senior bankers with something in common (alumni, interest, etc.).

When emailing multiple people at one shop, try to figure out what industry/product each covers and don't send emails to those in the same group (much more likely to talk with each other, especially at a boutique, and it comes off as desperate more so than highly interested).

Be prepared for rejection and/or no replies from many, but when you do hear back try to set-up times to talk as quickly as possible (bankers are busy and have short memories with stuff like this) and always ask for some sort of introduction to another person on his/her team. (VP ask for Assoc; Assoc ask for Analyst - its easier to do down the food chain)

Good luck!

 

Don't artificially limit your possible networking contacts by not going for senior bankers at larger banks.

Also, when I was networking, I found that many times at smaller firms (MM and smaller), bankers wanted to hear who else you had talked to at their firm. "Not not a boutique" is right though; try to space out your emails and send them to different groups if possible.

 

Okay, good to know. I'll lay off and wait to see if anyone replies. Yeah, coming off as "annoying" was really what I was trying to avoid. I should hopefully hear back about whether or not I'm accepted for the second round within a day or two. Fingers crossed!

 

You've pretty much got it. Never cold email more than one person in a particular group/division of a firm. Once you talk to that person hopefully you can get referred to other people within the group to talk to. If you email blast a bunch of people in a group at once they will probably make fun of you. And yeah you're better off with one solid contact at 10 different firms than two contacts at 5 firms.

 

Hey hopinggtsgy, I'm the WSO Monkey Bot and I'm here since nobody responded to your thread! Bummer...could just be time of day or unlucky (or the question/topci is too vague or too specific). Maybe one of these topics will help:

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I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 

Two points:

1) To answer your question one at a time. Only exception would be if its a big enough company that you can find two people from two completely separate divisions who you know will never be speaking with each other.

2) Don't use linkedin unless it is a last resort. Emailing is more professional and will give you a higher response rate.

 
Best Response

I think this largely depends on the size of the firm. If this is for a large bank, I don't think it will hurt you if you have 5ish referrals from various teams/departments. If it is a small firm/team, realize that word spreads quickly and you should stop after 1-2 referrals. However, think about it from an opportunity cost perspective... for instance instead of having 10 referrals for one firm, it would make more sense to spend the time speaking with 2-3 individuals from 2-4 different firms.

Whatever you do, DO NOT reach out to any more than two individuals on the same team. We had a situation over the summer where a candidate reached out to EVERY analyst/associate as well as multiple senior folks on our team. Suffice to say he did not get an interview despite having a great resume and proper qualifications. Just be smart about it and use common sense.

 

I always thought you talked to a couple of analysts, get pushed up to associates and maybe speak to a VP or two. Just going to start my networking process, so want to make sure I end up doing the right thing.

I'm targeting satellite offices so think analyst classes of 3-7ish. What do you recommend?

 

Yes. I was targeting traders from a specific desk. So was not sure about it.

Guess I'll start contacting other desks from now once I've contacted the BBs.

Also I was using LinkedIn because I am at a target so it's easier for me to get connections.

Though I'm thinking of getting connected and then mailing them at the address given in linkedin.

Is that recommended?

 

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