by Philip Kiely ’20
As a student at Grinnell College, I spent countless hours in a familiar loop: find an internship that looked promising, upload my résumé to the application portal, re-type all of the information from my résumé into their form, write a generic cover letter, cross my fingers, hit send, check my inbox for the confirmation email, and … never hear from the company again.
I thought that I was doing everything right. I had polished my résumé, built a portfolio of projects, and listed every bit of work experience I had under my belt (no, I wasn’t “stocking shelves at Trader Joe’s,” I was doing “daily inventory management to ensure a satisfactory customer experience”). Many of my friends were in similar boats: lots of applications, very few interviews.
But if you venture down to your friendly neighborhood CLS, you might be surprised to learn that tossing résumés into job portals is just a small part of finding a great opportunity. One alternative approach that I’ve had a lot of success with in my career to date is cold email.
There are three steps to adding cold email to your job search practice:
- Know your goal: You don’t need to know everything you want out of life. But an idea for a next step lets the person you’re writing to know how they can help.
- Find a prospect: There are more people who can help you than you might think. For example, you can probably learn what you need to get started with a career in politics from a state senator, not just the president.
- Write the email: The scary part of this whole thing is actually sitting down, typing out your thoughts, and hitting that send button. But trust me, it’s worth it!
That final step – writing the email – is the greatest challenge. Effective cold emails are concise and focused. Like a viral tweet, you only have a few seconds to hook your audience before they scroll to the next email in their inbox.
Every useful cold email that I’ve sent has had three essential components:
- A clear, specific ask: Cold emails only work if they have a purpose. Be explicit about why you’re writing; it’s okay to ask for what you need. Someone will say yes.
- Proof of work: Show that you’re worth investing in by demonstrating the effort you’ve put into your own career to date and the research that brought you to the prospect’s inbox.
- Effortless logistics: Make it easy for the person you’re writing to follow up if they’re interested.
Not every cold email will be successful. In fact, most won’t be. But the practice as a whole can get you access to tons of exciting opportunities – or even create new ones from thin air.
I believe cold email remains an underrated tool, especially among ambitious college students who could benefit immensely from the right connection. That’s why I wrote a free ebook, Life-Changing Email for Students, which guides you through figuring out who to reach out to, how to find them, and what to say.
