So, You have applied for a job, but haven’t received any answer?
See, There are a lot of applications that companies receive on day to day basis and its really hard for them to screen every single one of them and get back to you. So instead of waiting for companies to get back to you, a better approach will be to do cold outreach, better known as cold emailing.
When you send cold emails to the representatives of companies you are interested in working for, like let’s say a recruiter or even CEOs or CTOs, it shows your initiative and willingness to put in the extra effort to achieve your career goals.
So in this article, we will discuss -
- What cold emails are
- How you can find good companies
- Finding the Email IDs of recruiters
- Tips for writing to them, and
- How to write a cold email for a job that personally helped me and will help “YOU” get an interview.
P.S. : Please watch the video for better explanation. How I got job interviews through Cold Emailing. This blog is written format for the video incase you want to follow along and take notes.
Before moving forward, I would like to clear one thing - COLD Emailing is not SPAM, unless of course if you’re sending 100 emails to a person in a day, that obviously is spam, BUT not 1 or 2 emails.
Also, you need to approach the other person as an equal because there’s a win win for both of you - They will get a good candidate if you’re a skilled individual and that will save them a lot of headache of hiring a good candidate.
So first things first, before sending a cold email, how you even FIND good companies to apply to?
Well, do you know who has done this heavy work already for you? YEP, Investors. So go through the portfolio of the major investors who have put their capital into good companies.
Lets checkout few of them -
So now that you found the suitable company to apply to, how do you reach out to apply for job?
Reach out to the founders or recruiters on platforms like Linkedin and twitter, they are the best places where you will find almost all these founders, CEOs, CTOs etc.
And yes it can happen that you may not get reply sometimes, so why not try the good old email?
Now you may ask - But how am I gonna find the email IDs of these people?
well, I have a solution for that as well, and this bring me to my next point.
How do you find the emails of recruiters or founders of big and small companies ?
I have a few tools for you -
Tips for Crafting a Cold Outreach
- Keep The Email Short
Recruiters are busy people. They may briefly read your email, and immediately decide whether to respond to it or ignore it.
You don’t need to include phrases like ‘I hope you are doing well today!” or “I hope this email finds you well.” At best, it’s irrelevant, and at worst, insincere.
So keep your email short.
- Have A Strong Email Subject Line
This is the first impression. The subject line is the one line of text that gets them to click open the personalized emails. For cold emailing purposes, the objective is sole: Get them to open this.
💡 “State level Hackathon Winner Interested In CRED”
💡 “3 Year Experienced Developer Interested in Backend role at Cars24”
- Sharing the proof of work
Record a loom video talking about yourself and the most fascinating project that you have built. Drop the link in the mail, this extra effort to pitch yourself will put you in good position. You would also come to know if the other person watches that video.
Here’s the video that I made when I was a fresher -
For the rest of the proof of work, a portfolio website could be helpful.
If you want me to make a portfolio website tutorial, comment down below and let me know.
- Mention Accomplishments
you are trying to sell yourself in one paragraph to the recruiter that you are someone worth reaching out to for an interview.
Name any hackathon you won.
Link to your project or an app on the app store that has a few thousand downloads, and mention that number.
If you're like me, and active on social media or create YouTube videos, mention that.
If you went to an impressive college, mention that too.
- Create Urgency & Establish A Timeline
if you already have a return internship offer with a different company, or a job offer, mention that.
It will put pressure on the recruiter to respond and might even fast track the process of getting you an interview.
Warning: Be careful not to make it seem like the company you are trying to apply to is the backup option. Make sure you convey excitement for the company.
- Call to Action
Be clear with what you want. An email hoping to ‘set up a meeting chat’ is too indirect.
So be bold, and always include a specific ask:
“I’d like to interview for a Frontend Developer Internship for Summer 2023”
Also, Give them something worth responding to. Make sure to leave your name, contact so that they can easily get back to you.
Examples -
You can find few written examples of cold emails here -
Hi X,
I’m a former Frontend Developer @A and B who will be graduating from college June’23.
I’m interested in working full time at <company-name> because of my interest in frontend and my interest in turning designs into beautiful websites.
How can I start the interview process?
Best,
Piyush Agarwal
Dear [NAME],
I’m interested in finding out more about [ROLE].
I’d be a particular asset because I have [NUMBER] years doing [SKILL], [SKILL] and [SKILL]. Additionally, I’m currently focused mainly on [GOAL], [GOAL] and [GOAL], and I note that your company [EVIDENCE OF ALIGNMENT]. I’m also excited about the prospect of working with you because of [PROOF OF RESEARCH].
I’d love to schedule a time to discuss my suitability for the role within the next fortnight. I will follow up with you on [DAY] if I haven’t received a reply from you before then.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
[LINKEDIN PROFILE]
Dear [NAME],
I saw you are advertising to fill the role of [POSITION]. I’m interested in the job. It is something I’m passionate about. Rather than just sending you my CV and cover letter, I decided to [WHAT YOU DID TO STAND OUT]. This work will hopefully show you why I would be a great candidate for the job.
I’d love to schedule a time to discuss my suitability for the role within the next fortnight. I will follow up with you on [DAY] if I haven’t received a reply from you before then.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
[LINKEDIN PROFILE]
Dear [NAME],
My name is [YOUR NAME]. You graduated a few years ahead of me from [SCHOOL]. I’m currently working at [COMPANY]. I’m interested in moving into [INDUSTRY], where you have established yourself.
I’d love to pick your brain about your post-graduation years and how you ended up in your current job. Would you be open to meeting up? I can, of course, work around your schedule.
Thanks,
[YOUR NAME]
[LINKEDIN PROFILE]
Thanks to voilanorbert for these templates
Now, Here are a couple of Pro tips before I end this video
- Grammatical errors put people off, especially now when the tools are available to take care of it. So use tools like Grammarly to fix your grammers. Also this is not sponsored by Grammerly. but if gramerly if you’re interested, here’s my mail id. 👍
- A/B Testing
Try to keep most of your email variables same except for one, After figuring out the right combination of As and Bs a perfect template can be created.
- Subject Line – Try going from irrelevant to specific. “Quick Question” versus “State level Hackathon Winner Interested In CRED”— notice the difference? With the subject line, you’re looking to improve the Email Opening Rate.
- Call to Action - Try different questions which may make recruiters respond to you.
Follow Up - If you receive no response a week after you sent your email, then it is acceptable to send a short follow-up email. It is likely the person you are sending the message to is busy and may have emails backed up that they haven't responded to.
If after 2-3 emails, you don’t get a response, reach out to another recruiter at the same company. Trust me, it’s not a weird thing to do.
Now in the end I would say this -
Remember that the person on the other end of the email is like you. They’re working, they have a life, and they occasionally click on emails from an unknown sender. Try as if you are convincing yourself through the email and that will definitely work.
Connect with me on Twitter 👉🏻
📌 Piyush Agarwal (RoadsideCoder)
Follow Roadside Coder on Youtube for more such great videos on JavaScript and React.