When hello seems to be the hardest word
Identifying the right people to talk to when you're researching your next role is essential.
We went into how to find those people in last week's newsletter.
This week, I'm going to help you work out what to say to those people when you find them.
Some of this is pretty straightforward but I know from working with clients that it can be comforting to know what others are doing that works.
There are lots of different scenarios when it comes to reaching out to people to find out more about roles and organisations but let's take one or two of the situations that gives people the fear the most. They're both to do with a tepid audience, which is those people who have something in common with you that hopefully gives them some level of warmth in their hearts towards you.
1 Tepid audience (where there is no job advertised in their organisation that's suitable for you).
Reaching out to these people could simply look like this:
Hi Chris,
I just finished my MBA at OUR SHARED INSTITUTION and see you're also an alumna.
I've been doing some research on organisations that look interesting as a next move and noticed you work for COMPANY ON MY HIT LIST.
I'm keen to know more about that organisation so I thought I'd reach out and make contact.
Regards,
Sarah
Or you could go directly for a very small ask.
The final line could be:
So I'm reaching out to ask if you might be able to spare 10 minutes to talk to me about your experience of working for COMPANY ON MY HIT LIST.
You'll notice I'm not asking them for a job or if they know anyone who has a job. For now we just want to start talking to people to find out more. Let's consider this scenario:
2 A tepid audience (where there is a job suitable for you in their organisation).
There's a further scenario with a tepid audience, which is similar but this time the ask is different. Let's say there is a job that's suitable for you there. This time you might change it up a bit and say.
Hi Chris,
I just finished my MBA at OUR SHARED INSTITUTION and see you're also an alumna.I'm really keen on applying for PEACHY ROLE at COMPANY ON MY HIT LIST and notice you work there.
I was wondering if you might be able to spare a few minutes to talk to me about your experience of working for them?
Regards,
Sarah
Again, you'll notice I'm not asking if they can put a word in the shell like ear of the people hiring for the role.
Bigger asks come later when we're dealing with tepid reach outs.
You can always ask for introductions, more information about particular roles and so on, once you've had an initial conversation with the person concerned. Remember, they don't know you yet so they don't see you as someone they might want to do a favour for at this point.
There are so many different permutations of how you can phrase some of these reach outs but as a general rule think:
• Does it fit into the message I can send in an initial LinkedIn connection request?
• Is my ask small enough to make it very easy for them to say yes?
• Can I make some connection as to why I'm approaching them?
It's not always alumni we're reaching out to, particularly if the last time you formally studied was over 20 years ago!
So other phrases you might use are:
• We both worked at SOME OTHER COMPANY in the past.
• My friend Paul McCartney suggested I reach out to you as someone who knows a lot about SOMETHING OR OTHER.
• I see we both post a lot of comments on PERSON IN COMMON's posts.
• You've made several interesting comments on my posts.
Can you think back to where you've been approached in this way yourself? What was your reaction to those people? What help did you give them?
Some people won't have time for you with this approach but the worst that can happen is they ignore you or say no. You've done nothing wrong by asking and they key here is to keep on going. People say yes to this and at worst, give you some fantastic information for your research whilst at best, can become strong allies for an applications you might make.
Good luck with reaching out an opening a whole new set of doors!