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Outreach

Cold Outreach 101

I just applied to a job, now what?

  • Step 1: Identify who to reach out to at the company.
    • How do I find the right person to contact?
      • Use LinkedIn to find contacts
        Option 1: Navigate to the company's page on LinkedIn and the People tab. ****Search on keywords like "Engineering" or "Data Analyst"
        Option 2: Enter this search term into Google: site:www.linkedin.com/in -inurl:dir “company name” “keyword: engineer, recruiter”
      • For small companies (less than <50 people)
        1. 1.
          Future Boss: Search for CTO, Engineering Manager, or VP of Engineering/Data
        2. 2.
          Future peer: Search for the title you are applying to. ➕ Bonus points if this peer has a similar background to you!
      • For medium companies (50 - 500 people)
        1. 1.
          Future Boss: Search for Engineering Manager, VP of Engineering/Data.
        2. 2.
          Future peer: Search for the title you are applying to. ➕ Bonus points if this peer has a similar background to you!
        3. 3.
          Technical Recruiter: Search for Technical Recruiter, Talent Acquisition, HR
      • For large companies (500+ people)
        1. 1.
          Future peer: Search for the title you are applying to. ➕ Bonus points if this peer has a similar background to you!
        2. 2.
          Technical Recruiter: Search for Technical Recruiter, Talent Acquisition, HR
  • Step 2: Find your contact's email!
  • Step 3: Send your email!
    • Email to CEO or Future Boss
      • Attention-grabbing, "fun" templates. Ideal for startups or companies with a casual brand voice.
        Recommended subject lines: Super excited about {company} OR I think I’m your next {role title}! OR Connect? OR Raising my hand for {role title}! ** I’m {name}, so nice to virtually "meet" you!
        I'm fascinated by the problems the {specific team name} team is solving at {company} — as soon as I saw that you are looking for someone that {#1 thing they are looking for} and {#2 thing they are looking for}, I had to reach out!
        To cut directly to the chase, I really think I am your team’s next {role}. I bring to the table a strong background in {tech stack required}, as well as experience developing in agile methodology (with fully remote teams, to boot!).
        I would love a chance to chat more about this team and what you are looking for in your next hire. Are you free for a quick phone call this week?
        name contact
        Recommended subject lines: Super excited about {company} OR I think I’m your next {role title}! OR Connect? OR Raising my hand for {role title}!
        Hello {name} –
        I wanted to introduce myself in a way that was charismatic enough that it got your attention without being annoying. Fingers crossed.
        My name’s {name}, and I’m extremely interested in joining your team. I applied for {position title} you recently posted on the company website and am excited about the opportunity. Just to give you some insight into my background, I have extensive experience in {skill from job description}, {skill from job description}, and {skill from job description}. I actually recently completed a project that aligns well with this role. If you’re interested in taking a look I’ve linked it here: {link Github}.
        Are you available this week for a chat? I have open availability and would love to hear more about what you are looking for in your next {position title}.
        Speak soon! name contact
        Recommended subject lines: Super excited about {company} OR I think I’m your next {role title}! OR Connect? OR Raising my hand for {role title}!
        Hi {name},
        I’m {name}, nice to virtually “meet” you!
        I have been following {company name} for some time now, and truly inspired by the work you are doing to {quick 1- 2 lines on the mission as you understand it}. To cut directly to the chase-- I really think I am your next {role title}!
        I recently applied to the opening I found for this role on {Angel List}, and also am quickly attaching my resume {link} and portfolio {link} here as well. I most recently wrapped up a project for {Labs Stakeholder if applicable} where I built {features mentioned in job description} using {tech stack/skills listed in job description}, which you can check out here {link code or project, whichever is strongest}.
        I would love a chance to chat more about this team and what you are looking for in your next {role}. Who on the team would be best to talk to about this role?
        name contact
      • Straightforward templates. Ideal for larger companies or those with more formal brands voice.
        Recommended subject lines: Super excited about {company} OR I think I’m your next {title}! OR Connect? OR Re: {Job Title}/{Company Name}
        I’m {name}, so nice to virtually "meet" you!
        I'm fascinated by the problems the {specific team name} team is solving at {company} — as soon as I saw that you are looking for someone that {#1 thing they are looking for} and {#2 thing they are looking for}, I had to reach out!.
        To cut directly to the chase, I really think I am your team’s next {role}. I bring to the table a strong background in {tech stack required}, as well as experience developing in agile methodology (with fully remote teams, to boot!).
        I would love a chance to chat more about this team and what you are looking for in your next hire. Are you free for a quick phone call this week?
        name contact
        **Pick this template if you find a contact who comes from a non-traditional tech background.
        Subject: Connect?**
        {name} – Hello!
        I recently applied for the {position} with {company name} and came across your contact in the process. I’m so excited about the potential opportunity and was thrilled to see another {position title} from a non-traditional tech background working for the company.
        {company name} has been on my radar for a while now and I would love to hear a bit more about you path into the role and any advice you have for someone entering the field.
        Are you available for a 20 minute phone or video call next week? I have open availability Wed-Fri.
        I look forward to speaking with you soon! name contact
        Recommended subject lines: Super excited about {company} OR I think I’m your next {title}! OR Connect? OR Re: {Job Title}/{Company Name}
        I'm {name}, nice to meet you!
        I strongly believe in the mission of Khan Academy to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere to create a more inclusive and equitable world. I also love the global reach Khan Academy has as I have experience teaching international students!
        I applied for the User Research Coordinator role last week and wanted to express my strong interest in the company and the position. I understand that you are looking for someone who can organize and manage a range of stakeholders and streamline processes for efficiency. I'm confident that my background working in the digital education space as well as leading and collaborating with cross-disciplinary remote teams will allow me to add value from Day 1 and ramp up quickly.
        I would love a chance to chat more about how I could become an asset to the team! Any chance that you have a few minutes in the near future to chat about what you are looking for in your next hire?
        You can also use this template for applications that are submitted via email. This is a longer, cover letter style outreach email which can be great in situations where you know they will be reading it.
        {name} – Good morning/afternoon!
        I am a recent graduate from the {program name} at Lambda School, a full-time intensive and immersive project -based curriculum program. I recently applied for the [position title] on LinkedIn and am really excited about the potential opportunity!
        I believe I’m a great fit for the role and here’s why {pick the top 3 things the company needs from the job description and connect them to yourself – the below is just an example – make it your own!}:
        1. 1.
          I am a nerd about high quality, fast, and clean code. I am deeply comfortable with structured code, databases, object-oriented programming, and “specialty” languages.
        2. 2.
          I am mercilessly self-motivated and as a result, take proactive actions seriously when working on a team. I am uncomfortable with leaving tasks undone and expectations un-communicated, so I’ll always be the person who ensures that the team is on the same page and that we are doing our best work together.
        3. 3.
          I am passionate about translating technical decisions to non-technical audiences. While I love to get deep into the technicalities of SQL syntax as much as the next person, I cannot think of anything that irks me more than people with technical backgrounds speaking over the heads of their customers.
        I would love to connect and dive deeper into my background as well as what I can bring to the team. Are you available for a phone or video call on Thursday or Friday of this week?
        Thank you for your time and consideration, name contact
    • Email to your future peer
      • Peers that have a similar background or journey into tech as you including Lambda Alumni.
        SUBJECT: Connect?
        Hi {name},
        I noticed that you are a Fellow Lambda grad and I thought I'd reach out.
        I recently applied for the [role] at [company], and was curious to know how you like working there so far, and what the journey was like for you to get there.
        Thanks for connecting.
        Sincerely, name contact
        Subject: Connect?
        {name} – Hello!
        I recently applied for the {position} with {company name} and came across your contact in the process. I’m excited about the potential opportunity and to see another {position title} from a non-traditional tech background working for the company.
        {company name} has been on my radar for a while now and I would love to hear a bit more about you path into the role and any advice you have for someone entering the field.
        Are you available for a 20 minute phone or video call next week? I have open availability Wed-Fri.
        I look forward to speaking with you soon! name contact
        SUBJECT: Connect?
        Hi {name}
        I’m {name}, nice to virtually "meet" you!
        I'm fascinated by {company} and your work to {1 sentence about what you love about what they do}.
        I would love to learn more about your path to Software Engineering and the {company}. For full transparency, I did check out your LinkedIn profile! As a fellow graphic designer, I am especially curious about your path from Design to Web Development and where you have seen your Design skills come in handy throughout your time at {company}.
        Are you free for a quick phone call this week, maybe Thursday or Friday?
        All the best, name contact
        SUBJECT: Hello there!
        Hey, fellow Lambda alum,
        I just applied for the [role] at [company] and figured I would reach out to my possible future coworker. 🤞
        How's the work environment? Do you like your role?
        It would be great to hear your feedback if you were willing to share, let me know if you'd ever want to hop on a zoom call. Either way, thanks for connecting.
        All the best, name contact
      • Peers that on paper you may not have much in common with.
        SUBJECT: Connect?
        Hi {name}
        I’m {name}, nice to virtually "meet" you!
        I'm fascinated by {company} and your work to {1 sentence about what you love about what they do}.
        I would love to learn more about your path to Software Engineering and the {company}. For full transparency, I "stalked" you a bit on LinkedIn! I am really interested in your path from Data to Web Development in particular and would love to learn more!
        Are you free for a quick phone call this week, maybe Thursday or Friday?
        All the best, name contact
        SUBJECT: Connect?
        Hi {name},
        I'm fascinated by Swift Transportation and your work on automation scripts. I came across your profile on LinkedIn when I was "stalking" folks who work at Swift and wanted to reach out here to introduce myself more formally!
        I recently applied to the open {role} role and I have so many questions about that team and what they are looking for in their next hire! Are you involved with interviewing for this role at this time? If not, do you know who might be better to connect with to ask a few questions?
        All the best,
    • Email to recruiter
      Before you reach out to a recruiter ⏸️ and make sure that you have exhausted your search for someone on the engineering team. Recruiters get a lot of outreach, so you'll stand out from the crowd more with direct outreach to the hiring manager.
      • Attention-grabbing, "fun" templates. Ideal for recruiter at startups.
        Recommended subject lines: Super excited about {company} OR I think I’m your next {role title}! OR OR Raising my had for {role title}! ** I’m {name}, and I imagine you are receiving a fair number of these since the {role title} dropped. I will try to keep this as brief as possible for someone who, admittedly, has a lot to say about my love for {company name} 😂.
        I found myself nodding along to so much of what you wrote in your job description! I love writing code, full stop. I am really comfortable in fast-paced development environments, have deep experience in React, Node.js and HTML/CSS frontends, and know how to develop well-tested code. I saw that experience with data teams and collaborating with clients directly was a nice to have for this role, and these are two things that I gained experience with on a recent project for {Labs stakeholder}, so I know that I could add value to the team in those areas as well. I applied to the listing for this role on your site, but am attaching my resume here as well for reference!
        I would love a chance to chat more about this team and what you are looking for in your next Software Engineer hire. Are you free for a quick phone call this week?
        All the best, name contact
        Subject lines: Re: {role title}
        Hi {name},
        Thank you so much for offering me the Front End Engineer role at {company name}! I wholeheartedly accept. Okay, okay, I know we’re not quite there yet.
        But if we were, here are just a few ideas of what I would do once in the role:
        • Using my strong background in React and design fundamentals, will jump in headfirst to develop clean, modern, and modular user interfaces. I noticed that experience building UI Libraries was a "nice to have" for this role, and this is something that I do, indeed, have. Nice.
        • With my (genuine) love of bug-squashing, I would work to both document and pull down bug fixes to relieve some pressure from the engineering team. As the new person on the team, this would be the right thing to do!
        • Calling on my experience developing on fully remote teams in the first days on the job, I would work to understand how my team communicates and develops in order to ship the most efficient code.
        These are just some ideas — I would love to learn more about this role and what exactly the team needs. Are you still interviewing for this role at this time? If so, are you free for a quick chat this week?
        name contact
      • Straightforward templates. Ideal for recruiters at more formal companies.
        Recommended subject lines: Super excited about {company} OR I think I’m your next {role title}! OR Connect? OR Raising my had for {role title}!
        Hello {name} –
        I am so excited about {company name} and the problems that the Engineering team are working on and focused on solving. I resonate deeply with the mission to {1 sentence about the company mission as you understand it}.
        My name’s {name}, and I’m extremely interested in joining your team. I applied for {position title} you recently posted on the company website and am excited about the opportunity. Just to give you some insight into my background, I have extensive experience in {skill from job description}, {skill from job description}, and {skill from job description}. I actually recently completed a project that aligns well with this role. If you’re interested in taking a look I’ve linked it here: {link Github}.
        Are you available this week for a chat? I have open availability and would love to hear more about what you are looking for in your next {position title}.
        Speak soon! name contact
        Use this template for applications that are submitted via email. This is a longer, cover letter style outreach email which can be great in situations where you know they will be reading it.
        {name} – Good morning/afternoon!
        I am a recent graduate from the {program name} at Lambda School, a full-time intensive and immersive project -based curriculum program. I recently applied for the [position title] on LinkedIn and am really excited about the potential opportunity!
        I believe I’m a great fit for the role and here’s why {pick the top 3 things the company needs from the job description and connect them to yourself – the below is just an example – make it your own!}:
        1. 1.
          I am a nerd about high quality, fast, and clean code. I am deeply comfortable with structured code, databases, object-oriented programming, and “specialty” languages.
        2. 2.
          I am mercilessly self-motivated and as a result, take proactive actions seriously when working on a team. I am uncomfortable with leaving tasks undone and expectations un-communicated, so I’ll always be the person who ensures that the team is on the same page and that we are doing our best work together.
        3. 3.
          I am passionate about translating technical decisions to non-technical audiences. While I love to get deep into the technicalities of SQL syntax as much as the next person, I cannot think of anything that irks me more than people with technical backgrounds speaking over the heads of their customers.
        I would love to connect and dive deeper into my background as well as what I can bring to the team. Are you available for a phone or video call on Thursday or Friday of this week?
        Thank you for your time and consideration, name contact
  • Step 4: If you haven't received a reply after 2-3 days, send a follow up to your contact.
    • How do I follow-up?
      Hi {name},
      Hope your week is going well. Just wanted to bump my note to the top of your inbox. I know how crazy things can get and wanted to make sure we could connect about the {position title} role.
      My schedule can be flexible in the coming days - so let me know when might work best for you for a call.
      Thanks again, name contact

Templates for LinkedIn cold outreach

Email has a much better response rate than LinkedIn connection requests + notes. Email is checked more often, can be forwarded to other teams, and can include a link to your resume. When in doubt, email your contact. However, if you can't find a reliable email or they seem especially active on LinkedIn, try to reach them there!
  • LinkedIn notes with connection requests
    Hey Alyse, I'm drawn to Odoo's mission and think my background in education could provide value for your data team. I would love to learn more about your path to work there. Can we connect?
    Hello Jerrard, I'm interested in Sculpt and trying to get a more realistic feel of the day to day responsibilities of a jr full stack engineer. What is one of the toughest parts about being a new engineer there?
    Hi Jasmine— I also went to the University of Utah, go utes! I recently applied to the UX Designer position at Lightz and am really interested in learning more about the company culture and role. Can we connect?
    Hi Ryan! I'm interested in your Front End position and I think my background in science & software could make me a great fit for these roles! When are you looking to start the interviewing process?
    Hello Lisa, I'm really excited about the work you are doing at Bloom Health to increase access to mental health, and when I saw you also had a background in Psychology, I had to reach out! Can we connect?
    {name} — My passions include
    1. 1.
      Designing beautiful applications
    2. 2.
      Building things that matter
    3. 3.
      Making financial education accessible to all. I've been following SmartWallet for the past few years and love the mission. Before transitioning to tech, I worked in finance- I want to find a way to get involved with you. Even if not immediately.
    Good Afternoon Meaghan! I recently applied to the Software Engineer position at Alkami and wondered if you had a few minutes to talk about the position. Are you free for 15 minutes this Friday?
    Hi Jill! I’m really excited about the POSITION role & the opportunity to work with STACK. When do you plan on starting to interview for this role?
    Hey Kelsey, I am thinking about applying for a software engineering role at ______ and I was wondering if I could talk to you about your experience working there. I really think that you guys are changing lives for the better and I want to get on board! Would you have time to do a quick call to just talk about how you've liked it, and specifically, what it's been like to be remote? Thank you!
    On the whole, we have found that email has a much better response rate than LinkedIn connection requests + notes. This is in part because you can follow up on email messages and because email is checked more often. When in doubt, email your contact.
  • They accepted my LinkedIn request but didn't respond 😅 — now what?
    Follow up with them! You can now send a message without character limits, use that!
    Thank you for accepting my connection request! I really think I could be a great fit for the Front End Engineering role, and would love to learn a bit more about the position and what you are looking for in your next hire. Do you have time for a quick phone **call this week?

Templates to continue the conversation!

  • They replied with a general, non-committal response.
    Ask if they can hop on a 📞 or Zoom call!
    Reply to the same email thread with: Thank you so much for getting back to me, I imagine this is a really busy time, so I appreciate it! I would love to learn more about what you all are really needing in your next engineer hire. Could we hop on a 15-minute phone call this week, maybe Wednesday or Thursday? If not, any chance I could run a few questions by you here?
  • They replied and said that they aren't the hiring manager for this role.
    Reply to the same email thread with: Thank you so much for getting back to me and letting me know! I apologize for the ping out of the blue in that case! I have a few questions about this role and what the team is looking for — any chance you could point me to who would be better on the team to bother with these? Any insight you can provide would be so helpful, thank you in advance!
  • They told me I didn't have enough experience.
    It can be discouraging to receive a version of the message: "We really are looking for people with more experience for this role." Never fear! You can work with this — below is an example of a great response to this common response.
    {name} — thank you so much for letting me know. I absolutely understand that your team is looking for someone with enough experience to jump in to {company name}'s codebase and ramp up quickly. From my time building in the fast-paced world of Lambda School, I am deeply comfortable working through complicated codebases, unblocking myself, and mentoring other developers, which are all skills that I know could add a lot of value to the {company name} engineering team. Additonally, I have over 3+ years of experience in management and customer-facing roles, which feels particularly relevant to this role's client-facing responsibilities.
    Given this experience and passion, how would I be able to stay in the recruiting process for this role?
  • They told that me the role closed but to keep an eye out for future roles.
    This happens all the time! Hiring moves fast, which is the main reason we recommend reaching out within 24 hours of applying. Make it very easy for your contact to help you with those “future opportunities”. Do a quick search of their open roles, keeping an eye out for stepping stone jobs like Solutions, Support, and Implementation Engineer. Apply to those and then send the below ⤵️
    Reply to the same email thread with: Thank you so much for getting back to me and so glad you were able to find a great fit for this role! I'd also love to stay in touch regarding future opportunities at {company name}. I am also really excited about these two roles and just applied to them:
    • API Engineer {hyperlink to job description}
    • Implementation Engineer {hyperlink to job description}
    Any chance you are involved in hiring for those roles right now or know of someone who would be a good contact for them?
    All the best and thank you again for your help!
  • They said they can meet for a call! 🎉 Now what?
    First, give yourself a huge pat on the back — you just networked yourself into a phone screen, informal or not! Make sure to review the document below to get prepared for this call and make the most of it. Jump in with a coach during #job_search office hours, as well, to prep! ****
    ​Informational Interviews​
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Cold Outreach 101
I just applied to a job, now what?