Career Advice
1 min readIntroductions when you do not know anyone in the market yet
Edwuma Team
A specific question to one person beats a blast to fifty strangers. Use the listings you are already reading as the reason to write.
You do not need a large network to get a first conversation. You need one person who does the work you want, and a question they can answer without doing your job search for you.
Write to one person
Find someone in the city or the company whose work matches the title you are targeting. Say where you found them, name the kind of role you want, and ask one question: how that team hires, which skill is scarce, or whether a particular kind of project is valued. Do not attach a CV in the first note.
- Keep it under 120 words.
- Do not ask "for any opportunities" with no title attached.
- If they reply, thank them and do the thing they suggested before you ask for anything else.
Meanwhile, keep applying through the listings. Conversations help you aim. They are not a substitute for a finished application.