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The Cold Email

zachholman.com

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Re: The Cold Email

#31

Post by ralfhn »

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #22
ralfhn wrote: post #19

I got my first job in the U.S by emailing the local PHP user group introducing myself. The CEO of a dev agency was on the list, and 2 weeks later I had a job offer. Moving to a new country not knowing anyone and with barely any money, fair to say that one email changed my life.

You joined a special interest technical group which is specifically for professional networking and informal meetups and you sent a general email to the entire group which led to a hiring process. Nothing about that is “cold calling” or “cold email”. Likewise, the posted article describes a Tweet from someone who announced they were hiring specific skilled professionals for an open position, and the author privately…

Sending an unsolicited email to a person or a group is a cold email. There's nothing to bikeshed here.

Re: The Cold Email

#32

Post by tayo42 »

gerdesj wrote: post #30

I'm probably somewhat older than most here. What OP is describing is what used to be normal and should still be! In the past it was normal to write a CV (resume) and a covering letter that was mildly tailored to each target firm, either in response to a job advert or on spec. I'm not talking quill pens here - you'd do a mail merge and buy a really large book of stamps. Linked In is possibly the worst thing that ever…

I feel like companies that are genuinely interesting are pretty rare.

Then you'll still get two rounds of leet code and system design.

Re: The Cold Email

#33

Post by [deleted] »

ralfhn wrote: post #31
ButlerianJihad wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You joined a special interest technical group which is specifically for professional networking and informal meetups and you sent a general email to the entire group which led to a hiring process. Nothing about that is “cold calling” or “cold email”. Likewise, the posted article describes a Tweet from someone who announced they were hiring specific skilled professionals for an open position, and the author privately…

Sending an unsolicited email to a person or a group is a cold email. There's nothing to bikeshed here.

[deleted]

Re: The Cold Email

#34

Post by mancerayder »

stdatomic wrote: post #24

Yeah people replied to cold emails back when they received one once every 3 months. Now we get dozens a day. Straight into the garbage.

Almost all of them are salespeople, sometimes finding my phone number and calling me on my personal number, even early in the morning. Insane stuff. That's 90% of cold calls. 8% are recruiters (also salespeople) telling me they either know a genius candidate or they can get me. 2%, that's probably the topic of this thread.

Re: The Cold Email

#35

Post by gerdesj »

tayo42 wrote: post #32
gerdesj wrote: post #30

I'm probably somewhat older than most here. What OP is describing is what used to be normal and should still be! In the past it was normal to write a CV (resume) and a covering letter that was mildly tailored to each target firm, either in response to a job advert or on spec. I'm not talking quill pens here - you'd do a mail merge and buy a really large book of stamps. Linked In is possibly the worst thing that ever…

I feel like companies that are genuinely interesting are pretty rare. Then you'll still get two rounds of leet code and system design.

Well my little company has at least three employees that came back again after leaving. Two of them are still here. We are not particularly interesting ...

What I'm advocating for here is trying out new (old) methods of waving your CV/resume at an employer.

I graduated as a civil engineering technician (BTEC HND) in the UK in 1990. I did a "sabbatical" ... cough rag (basically pissed up for a year for charity is a fair description of that).

The building industry in the UK collapsed in 1991 along with a rather nasty recession.

Obviously I ended up in IT! It took a while but I completely reskilled and to cut a very long story short in 2000 me and a couple of other chaps formed a little company that is still running.

Enough of me.

Getting hired is hard but I would suggest that you don't simply rely on Linked In.

Re: The Cold Email

#36

Post by KPGv2 »

tombert wrote: post #29

Something I learned awhile ago is that most people that I consider "celebrities" really aren't that famous, and as such are generally pretty happy to respond to emails. In ~2014 I sent an email to Joe Armstrong (one of the creators of Erlang) asking some questions about concurrency because I still didn't fully understand why Erlang was supposed to be better for it. I expected him to just point me to an FAQ or simply…

> Something I learned awhile ago is that most people that I consider "celebrities" really aren't that famous

Yes. I've experienced this in many fields, from reaching out to the founder of a magazine, to several big name fans (artists and writers) in fandom, to touring hip hop artists (!!!), to people steering a programming language.

The first time, you can't believe they responded. But if you pursue excellence in that same field, eventually you realize y'all are peers, and then you get someone freaking out that you responded.

Re: The Cold Email

#37

Post by amazingamazing »

"Cold email" - I hate this term. Call it what it is. Spam.

And no, personalizing your spam doesn't make it any less spam, especially with AI these days, but this is a hot take for a VC forum whose companies survive on spam.

Re: The Cold Email

#38

Post by jtmarl1n »

boplicity wrote: post #21
saltamimi wrote: post #3

I agree wholeheartedly with this article and this is something I'm struggling with my daughter about: the worst thing anybody can say is no and in some cases, they already said no. If you ask (or ask again), you might get a really good answer or more.

Build up with small challenges. Not sure how old your daughter is, but, for example, our 7 year got a gift card. They wanted to know how much it was worth -- so they were the ones who had to go up to the counter to ask the employee. Just practicing going into uncomfortable or unfamiliar situations is valuable, and leads to confidence for the bigger stuff.

My parents did this exact thing to me growing up and I hated it at the time. I now see how valuable it was and will doing the same with my kids.

Re: The Cold Email

#39

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

gerdesj wrote: post #30

I'm probably somewhat older than most here. What OP is describing is what used to be normal and should still be! In the past it was normal to write a CV (resume) and a covering letter that was mildly tailored to each target firm, either in response to a job advert or on spec. I'm not talking quill pens here - you'd do a mail merge and buy a really large book of stamps. Linked In is possibly the worst thing that ever…

I abandoned cover letters when I showed up to an interview and the interviewer complained that my resume was too thin. That was on purpose because a lot of the meat was in the cover letter that he never received. I just merged them and gave up on customization when ATSs started being used to cull 99% of applicants.

Re: The Cold Email

#40

Post by JSR_FDED »

I hired someone when we were contemplating a Linux version of our product. The unsolicited email I received just radiated passion and interest. Easiest decision ever.
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