Friday, July 26 - "Is Cold Networking Spammy?"

Good morning!

Here’s what’s on the JD today:

1. One of the most well-known collaborative software companies worldwide is hiring.

2. Gary says, “I feel spammy reaching out to people I don’t know and asking for help.”

IN HIRING

GitHub

• All roles are fully remote and the company’s software is used by nearly everyone in the developer world.

• With a very straight forward and transparent process, this is an organisation trying to make it simple for candidates.

• Here are a few of the most interesting roles available

  • Project Manager (USA) - Click here for full details

  • Senior Manager, Support (UK) - Click here for full details

  • Senior Customer Success Manager (Japan) - Click here for full details

Click here for the company’s career page

TODAY’S QUESTION

Gary says, “I feel spammy reaching out to people I don’t know and asking for help.”

This is a pretty commonly held idea. It also sounds like a great excuse to not try it and find out for yourself.

Recommendation: The easy answer to this statement is that yes, it is a bit spammy. Here are my thoughts:

• While the idea of connecting with a high volume of strangers in the hopes that some of them will help you find a job is spammy, it doesn’t need to be that spammy. One tip is to not ask for anything unless you’ve sent 2 or 3 messages first asking about their week, day or summer. People tend to find that a bit more conversational than if you ask for a meeting right away.

• Connection requests and referral requests are always less spammy if you can highlight a shared experience. It doesn’t matter whether it is culture, language, country, school, a place of work, or a hobby - if you can highlight something shared, people are much more likely to want to help rather than feel obligated.

• Finally, don't make the message about you and don’t ask for a referral over messaging. At least ideally start with messages that are focused on what you want to learn about them rather than what you want. If all else fails, try being spammy for a week or two and see if it works - if it gets you a job, who cares!

Conclusion:

Networking does have a spam-like element to it but it can be as spammy or as non-spammy as you want it to be. Either way, you’ll face rejection and it will lead to interesting conversations.

Get your question answered by replying to this email (or just say hi 😊).