Response Rate for non-alumni has been close to 0 for me (1/50 responses). I've been trying to tailor emails by talking about similar interests or backgrounds but it hasn't been working well. Curious to know how others have gotten non-alumn to respond.
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I’ve had the exact opposite. I had tailored emails for alumni and other connections with 0% response rate. I made a very basic/boiler plate email for cold emails and have had a decent response rate. My cold email is 3-4 sentences, direct and to the point.
Thanks for the reply, that's an interesting take and I'll try that out to see how it works, appreciate it.
When I ran out of alumni, I started contacting people with the same first name as me. I had a noticeably higher hit-rate when doing this.
The trick here is to not mention that you have the same name since it would be a little weird in your intro.
It's all about the reason for the outreach.
I'm at a HF and I get non-alum random emails via linkedin often. When I get a cut and paste email from a college kid or junior analyst 'asking for generic advice' I just push them off. When it's super generic I feel like I won't have anything to add and it will be a waste of time on both sides. If I was at a bank it would probably be different, but we barely hire MBAs let alone pre-MBAs.
When it's a specific outreach, I reply. This includes ppl w/ a few years of IB who have specific buyside questions. I've also had ppl on WSO send me messages for advice and they have been total class acts with detailed good questions (What do you think about this fund? This grad school?, etc...). You'd be amazed how small the HF world is, even small funds. I'm always happy to help where I can.
It's just the random emails from sophomores on Linkedin for generic advice to move their career forward that I just don't get.
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