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Ask HN: Do you cold-contact peers when considering working at a company?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you cold-contact peers when considering working at a company?

#21

Post by mandytolliver »

stevewilhelm wrote: post #17

I would try something slightly different. Use a 'Trojan Horse' topic or subject. Email saying you are trying to use the company's product or service in a current project. Ask them questions about the product or service. If they are enthusiastic and helpful, that will be an indicator that the company is a good place to work. If they don't respond, or forward you to marketing or sales, that tells you something else abo…

Thanks, and I think you could combine the two in a softball opener.

For example, you could say -- "Developing Augmented Reality apps fascinates me, and Example.com seems to be a leader. Do you really get to do leading-edge work in Augmented Reality there?"

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold-contact peers when considering working at a company?

#22

Post by mandytolliver »

dmourati wrote: post #19

When I applied, I used Glassdoor/Facebook/LinkedIn to search through my current social/professional network and to find people one layer removed from me who worked at my now current company. I then asked my contacts how well they knew the employees at my current company. One was able to put me in touch via email. I contacted the employee via email, said I need 15 minutes to chat with him and that it needed to be fast…

Good idea!

You got the best of both worlds: Even though you didn't know anyone, you were able to contact someone who you were already "connected" to.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold-contact peers when considering working at a company?

#23

Post by loumf »

This is commonly called an "informational interview".

I don't get how applying for a job makes you seem needy, though. If there's actually a job opening and you are qualified for it, then why not apply? I think of informational interviews as being a way to network into jobs that don't exist (or before they are posted)

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold-contact peers when considering working at a company?

#25

Post by mandytolliver »

auctiontheory wrote: post #16

You can do this, but you'd be much better off finding a common connection, perhaps through LinkedIn. No company is perfect, but someone who knows you only through a cold email would be a fool to trust you with criticism of his employer. I'm not sure why you think that your personal site proves that you're "worth responding to." The problem with your post is that it's all about you - you're not thinking of what's in i…

OK, getting a referral is good.

The link to my personal site has the role of a resume -- it is to show that I'm not sure random person off the street, I am someone who may well be worth recruiting.

The idea is that the contact will see that a serious, experienced, front-end designer/developer just made contact and may well want to pitch their company to me.

I'm not looking for them to slag off their company, of course.

I am fine being pitched to, but I'd prefer that a fellow developer does this.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold-contact peers when considering working at a company?

#26

Post by impendia »

I did this, with great success, when I was applying to math graduate schools.

I was in an unusual situation -- had been out of school for five years, and so did not have any useful contacts. So I browsed the personal home pages of graduate students at programs I was interested in, e-mailed several of them out of the blue, and asked them about what they liked about their programs.

For the most part, they were wonderfully supportive. I got several very substantive and encouraging replies, and learned some useful information about programs I was interested in. I'm very glad I did it.

The situation was somewhat different from OP's --- I didn't want anything from them (and indeed there was nothing they could have done for me) other than to reply to my messages. In particular, I didn't entertain the thought of sending them a resume to pass on (it wouldn't have helped).

So different situation, but for me it worked.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold-contact peers when considering working at a company?

#27

Post by loumf »

stevewilhelm wrote: post #17

I would try something slightly different. Use a 'Trojan Horse' topic or subject. Email saying you are trying to use the company's product or service in a current project. Ask them questions about the product or service. If they are enthusiastic and helpful, that will be an indicator that the company is a good place to work. If they don't respond, or forward you to marketing or sales, that tells you something else abo…

Starting off a relationship with a series of lies (even small ones) isn't a good idea. If you are actually trying to use the product, great -- if not, there are plenty of truthful openings.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold-contact peers when considering working at a company?

#28

Post by mandytolliver »

loumf wrote: post #23

This is commonly called an "informational interview". I don't get how applying for a job makes you seem needy, though. If there's actually a job opening and you are qualified for it, then why not apply? I think of informational interviews as being a way to network into jobs that don't exist (or before they are posted)

Employers often prefer passive candidates to actives--it's the "playing hard to get" thing.

As to the informational interview -- is that also the term used when the candidate makes contact to a peer? If so, then it's good to know that the concept exists.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold-contact peers when considering working at a company?

#29

Post by mandytolliver »

impendia wrote: post #26

I did this, with great success, when I was applying to math graduate schools. I was in an unusual situation -- had been out of school for five years, and so did not have any useful contacts. So I browsed the personal home pages of graduate students at programs I was interested in, e-mailed several of them out of the blue, and asked them about what they liked about their programs. For the most part, they were wonderfu…

Wow, great! And the idea of getting my resume passed on is very much secondary -- the main purpose here is informational only -- I want to learn about the company.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold-contact peers when considering working at a company?

#30

Post by loumf »

mandytolliver wrote: post #9
wsxcde wrote: post #8

I haven't done exactly this but I have "cold" contacted people who I had some sort of connection with - same college, common friends, etc. I usually mention this in my e-mail saying something like "I'm contacting you because we both did X so I thought it might be alright to bother you."

Thanks, that makes sense. But if you don't know anyone, why not find some developer and their email address (a bit of Google-Fu will do it) and contact them? To me, it seems polite enough. Wouldn't _you_ answer such an email if it was polite and seemed to come from a serious developer?

Of course I would -- it's hard to find people. Some companies give referral bonuses to incent their employees to recruit on their behalf. If the idea is to get "inside information", I think it will fail (or at least, hope it will). Not treating company information as secret (especially to strangers) is a sign of a dysfunctional organization.

If it's just "feel" that you are looking for -- then I think you'll get that.

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