Here’s a technique that many clients have used successfully to land interviews. A prerequisite is that you have a list of target organizations ready that your network contacts may have heard of. The idea is that you don’t have time to email every single person individually in your hopefully very broad network of 200+. So to save you time, send an e-mail out to a large portion of your network – say 100 of the 200 people to whom you want to reach out.
The people who would receive this message are perhaps those you think are less likely to come through for you, or those who you don’t know well enough to put on the spot with an email request sent just to them. Often, family, friends, your dentist, acquaintances, or those outside of your profession or industry might fall into this category.
Details of the email:
- The subject line could be something like: “Your help requested”.
- An example of the e-mail intro (feel free to change/personalize): “Hi all, as some of you may know I’m starting to explore a transition to a new VP of Marketing role within Pharma and Biotech, and am writing to ask for your help. I would greatly appreciate a 10-15 minute conversation with mid to upper-level (Director or above) contacts you might have in any of the organizations listed below (or similar companies). In our conversation, I would not be asking for a job, but rather would ask your contact about how the company is organized and where my skillset could be a fit down the road.”
- Then put your pitch here, with 3-6 bullet points listing your accomplishments. Keep in mind that this is an email they might forward to one of their contacts.
- Close by re-iterating the ask, and also consider offering to help them: “And, if I can introduce you to anyone in my network, please let me know.”
- At the bottom of the e-mail, list all the organizations you are interested in. This list of organizations is key, because the list will help to remind the e-mail recipients of people they know in these organizations.
- Make sure to blind copy all the email recipients!
This email works because 1) you don’t attach your resume – doing so screams “please hire me,” while your strategy with this email is to get meetings with the “right” people – those who can hire you or may know of hiring leaders – regardless of whether there’s an opening now, 2) you make it clear you won’t put your network’s contacts on the spot by asking for a job, 3) you include a powerful pitch that can substitute for a resume, and 4) you show appreciation, and even offer to help them
A client of mine took this approach when including her neighbor, who she didn’t know well but whose email address she happened to have, in a similar mass email. It turns out that this neighbor’s husband’s brother’s wife worked for the CFO of a large global media company where she was looking to land finance executive role. She ended up getting an interview with the CFO.
I have many similar stories. In fact, there’s a whole science around the power of “weak ties” (Google it) that says the people you least expect are the ones who often come through for you.
Most of my job-search clients get interviews by tapping into the hidden job market; they are both reaching out to their network and cold-emailing/calling people they don’t know. You, too will want to prioritize efforts that will allow you to bypass the glut of applicants going through the “front door” – job postings. This strategy is especially vital for my executive-level clients – since roughly 80% of these jobs are landed through networking or even cold outreach, including networking with retained search firms. So, focus your efforts on the hidden job market. The goal is to land lots of informational meetings with hiring decision-makers that could lead to interviews via referrals or your keeping in touch. Here are four ideas to get you started.
Sending an email vs an old-fashioned letter
by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Interviewing
Job-search clients often ask me whether they should mail or email their cover or followup letter. I tell them to default to email unless there is a compelling special case for sending a traditional letter. The reasons I recommend email: