Is cold emailing okay?
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Anonymous
| Cold emails are not invasive. They’re part of business life. However, have a strategy in order for it to be effective. “Trying to expand your network” is most likely not going to get anyone to respond. Networking is about what you can do to help to see if there is mutual benefit, not what’s in it for you. I work in private business (not affiliated with govt as all). I routinely am a parties or get together with federal workers or staffers and honestly, they’re annoying. They initiate conversation, immediately ask what I do, then end the interaction once they realize I’m not a person that can help advance their career. Don’t let your kid be like this. Try to offer something. Maybe it’s a simple as letting an older person talk about themselves and what they do, or maybe they want to give back to a younger generation…but think about what they get out of it. |
Anonymous
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Cold emailing is definitely fine and should be encouraged tbh. Too many people are scared to ask for what they want and subsequently never receive it.
Having said that, he needs to be smart about how he does this to have it be effective. To do that, he needs to understand the power dynamics here - he is going to be offering nothing of value to strangers and asking for something in return. People like to help young people within their network. So he should use his network even though it is mostly made up of strangers - email alumni of his schools, email people local to the area, ask friends for references, etc |
Anonymous
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OP here. How do you feel about kids following up on an email?
He hears from people online that its okay to reiterate your interest after a couple of weeks if you didn't receive a reply, especially given professionals are very busy and their email inboxes are flooded. |
Anonymous
I don’t see anything wrong with following up politely once, if a couple weeks have gone by with no response. People are busy. However, if there’s no response after 2 tries, I would stop and turn my attention elsewhere. |
Anonymous
Best practice (according to DC's career center) is follow up twice: once one week after the original email, and once three weeks after the original email. After that, it's probably a bust. |
Anonymous
Does following up typically make someone more likely to respond or just feel like they're being annoying? |
Anonymous
| I prefer email over LinkedIn as at least with email, you know it will end up in their inbox no matter what. |
Anonymous
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My DH gets Linkedin messages ALL THE TIME and sometimes the photo of the messanger is inappropriate in that it's showing cleavage, etc
So your kid will get lumped in with those people if they go via Linkedin. Don't do it. Whatever happened to a well written CV and a letter in the mail. |
Anonymous
Letter in the mail, really? |
Anonymous
Yes |
Anonymous
| My students university has an internal system where parents and alumni agree to be contacted. Has your student looked into this? |
Anonymous
| Best to hand deliver any cold email. |