What's the best way to reach out to new contacts who work at interesting tech companies?
I was speaking with a student today who had this same question, and her concern was: how do I reach out and show them I know what I want but also show I'm flexible to new opportunities? Won't that sound weird to try to do both?
The key here is that tech people are busy, but many of them also like to help others enter the industry.
What they don't want to do: explain something that you could have easily researched on your own.
What you want to do: strike a balance between saying something generic like "can you tell me more about the tech industry?' and something super specific like "can you tell me more about the program manager role on the Ads Optimization team in the NY office, and what kind of project management tools and techniques they employ?"
Instead, use the 'test and validate' approach: show the contact you've done some research and then ask them to validate your research.
For example, let's say you have done your research and are pretty sure that you'd like to work in a business operations role at Facebook.
When reaching out to a potential contact at FB, you would include something like this in your networking email "I have looked at business operations roles at Facebook, and think I would be a good fit because of X skill, Y skill and Z skill. I'd love to speak with you further to help me validate that I'm a good fit for these roles, or discuss if there are other roles that you think I should consider, based on your knowledge of FB."
By structuring your email in this way, it helps to show the person you’re networking with that (a) you have done some research and (b) you have a career direction, but that (c) you are also open to additional information from them (the "expert" on their company). You've now framed it as a learning opportunity for you, and a chance for them to become a mentor or to give you information that could be very useful to you and your career.
