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Reaching out to people, especially perfect or near-perfect strangers, for the purpose of networking is nerve-wracking, to say the least. I’m not even particularly introverted, and I dislike the process. What if you’re bothering that person? What if they’re a jerk? What if, what if, what if? I get it, I really do. But ultimately, if you want to meet new people in your profession, you’ll have to reach out to folks, most of whom will be friends-of-friends at best. Check out our tips below to make the process as painless and successful as possible.
Start with Why They Should Care
Forgive me for being blunt, but you’ll want to start your email off strong in order to prevent your recipient from closing it immediately. Tell them how you got their contact information, where you may have crossed paths with them, or if you are a student at their alma mater—whatever you have that can make the connection between this person and yourself, use it and use it early. And if you have none, then simply introduce yourself and move on to the next step.
Tell Them How They Can Help
Now that you’ve established who you are, move quickly into telling your contact what business you have with them. Ask them if they’d have time for a chat about what it’s like to work at their company or how they got to the position that they’re in. You may have the instinct to soften the blow, start with something like, “I’m sorry if this is out of the blue, but I was wondering if maybe…” Trust me, it’s not worth it. Most people would prefer not to have to decode a roundabout message like that. You’re already asking a stranger for a favor, so you may as well just ask it straight out. I’m not advising being discourteous, of course. Just direct.
Make Yourself Available to Their Schedule
Speaking of being courteous, since you’re the one asking for something, that means that you’re the one who needs to be flexible with your schedule. If you’re in school, of course, classes should come first. But past that, it’s important that you move things around in order to accommodate the person giving you the informational interview, since they’re the one being generous with their time. They may be able to take some time during the workday, but more likely, they’ll have more availability after 5:00 and on the weekends. You’d do well to make it clear in your outreach email that you’re willing to fit into whatever their schedule is.
Putting the three steps above to use, your email could look something like this:
Dear X,
My name is Y, and I’m a junior at the University of Illinois. Z Jones gave me your contact information when I told her that I was interested in learning more about what it was like working at IBM. Would you be willing to chat with me for 20 minutes about your career journey and how you landed in your current position? I can be available at whatever time works best for you. I look forward to hearing back from you!
So what now? If they write back and agree to meet, great job—mission accomplished! If not, read on for a few extra tips.
Follow-Up, But Be Cool
Okay, so you sent your email a few days ago, and haven’t heard anything back—what to do? That depends on how long it’s been. Three days? Take a deep breath and give it some more time. A week? That’s an appropriate amount of time to wait before following up. Go ahead and send them a quick email, something along the lines of “Hi X, just wanted to follow up to see if you’ve had a chance to consider meeting with me. Looking forward to hearing from you!” A quick, polite touch to bring the email back to the top of their inbox should be all that you need to do.
What If They Decline or Don’t Respond?
Take it from someone with a very email-heavy job: you can’t make people respond to you, and you can’t make them respond how you want them to, no matter how good your email is. Try not to take it personally if someone declines to meet with you, or if you just never hear back from them. It almost certainly had nothing to do with you specifically. People get busy, messages are lost in the daily inbox churn, and spam filters can be overly zealous in their filtering processes. You’ve just got to take it on the chin and try again with a different person. It may take you a few tries to get someone to sit down with you, but I hope this guide will help you make lots of useful networking connections.
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