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Brendan Wilson-Barthes's avatar

Very helpful, thank you! One thing I have been unsure about is when/how to engage with individuals on Linkedin (with whom I share a 1 or 2 degree connection) who work at organizations to which I have recently applied or am planning to apply. Is reaching out for an informational interview frowned upon and seen as circumventing the hiring process, or is it the best way for your application to stand out and gain more insight on the organization? To be clear, I am not talking about a company's recruiter/hiring manager, just someone at the company with whom I share a legitimate connection.

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Wayan Vota's avatar

Always reach out to people you know at a company you are interested in *before* a job ad is posted. Then it feels honest and real. Once the job ad is live, you have to be more intentional not to come across as transactional

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Brendan Wilson-Barthes's avatar

Thank you!

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Sascha A Lamstein's avatar

I haven't found it so easy to get folks I have targeted to accept my request to be a contact and, thus, be able to request an informational interview (call).

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Big Skeet's avatar

Look into a book called 2 Hour Job Search. It has a recipe for a 75 word email that I have had a lot of luck with. Prior to that I was trying to sell myself and would get ghosted. The goal is to make it as easy and painless as possible for the person on the other end to respond with “sure, when works for you.” Blasting them with a wall of text and your resume is a recipe for being ignored because suddenly you seem like a lot of work. Idk if this is what you’re doing, but it’s what I was doing.

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Wayan Vota's avatar

Great point! You need to lead with an honest inquiry about them and what they are doing. Just hitting them with 'hire me' doesn't get you anywhere.

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Wayan Vota's avatar

Sascha, are you connecting to them via someone they know (ie. Dear Susan, I was speaking to John and he said I should speak with you...)? I've found that using these type of connections will generally have an 80% success rate. Cold outreach, where you don't have someone in common, is around 20%. And best if via email vs. LinkedIn, as they may have turned off notices or not check that email address often.

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Gabriela's avatar

How can I see a recording of this session?

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Wayan Vota's avatar

We didn't make a recording of this session. We try to keep Ask Me Anything sessions a safe space for participants.

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