Wednesday, July 10 - "How Do I Get a Referral?"

Good morning!

Here’s what’s on the JD today:

1. The shoe brand with a story that inspired best selling book, Shoe Dog, is hiring.

2. Nicole asks, “I have sent out messages but I never hear back. How do I actually get a referral?”

IN HIRING

Nike

• The company is half lifestyle brand, half retail power house, making it a great fit for anyone wanting to build a career in the retail space.

• Currently, there are over ~700 full time roles including those in Branding, Marketing Project Management, and Strategy.

• Here are a few of the most interesting roles available

  • Retail Brand Director - Click here for full details

  • Mgr, Mktg Project Mgmt - Click here for full details

  • Senior Principal, Converse Strategy - Click here for full details

Click here for the company’s career page

TODAY’S QUESTION

Nicole asks, “I have sent out messages but I never hear back. How do I actually get a referral?”

Recommendation: There is few worse feelings than doing what you feel is the right thing but not getting the outcomes you expected. Here is the best way to get more referrals.

• First off, take an honest look at how many messages you are sending out. The average response rate is only around 5%, which is 1/20. Simply sending more messages is a good way to solve most of your problems.

• Second, ensure your intro messages are short. Later on in the discussion, you can go further in depth but start short. Introductions that are one or two sentences have much higher success rates as the longer ones just do not get read.

• Finally, make the entire experience about the person you are reaching out to. Ask them questions about themselves before asking for help. Here are a few good ones that I have seen get the conversation going in an interesting way:

  • If you had a magic wand, what is one change you would make to the company?

  • What is the most interesting part about your job and why?

  • (If they have been there for over 2 years) What keeps you working here, rather than looking for a job elsewhere?

Conclusion: Be honest about how much you are doing. Likely, just doing more will make the biggest change.

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