Tips For Asking For Help On Your Job search
Meet new people, learn new things, find new opportunities
Sometimes when you need something, the best thing to do is ask for help. I know a lot of us like to feel independent and find asking for things awkward, but it’s true.
It works.
Your network is much bigger than you think. The internet has given us access to more people than ever before. Even people you don’t know can be reached if you’re polite and try hard enough.
The past few weeks I have been speaking to friends, family and new friends (strangers), about potential new jobs and career paths, below are some tips I learned along the way.
Going In Ice Cold
This has the highest rate of failure, that’s fine, most people ignoring you aren’t doing it as a personal slight, they’re just busy.
To show you aren’t just spamming them, it’s best to do a little research and put some effort it in. Find something you have in common.
“You did Physics at uni? So did I!”
Bam!
A beautiful friendship starts and you both live happily ever after.
Get To The Point
I don’t like to waste people’s time, so I give them the ask in the intro message.
“I saw that you’re a quant, I have been wanting to learn more about the field, would you mind if I asked you some questions about that?”
People don’t want to get 5 messages before you get to the ask, these people are busy!
Cold messages have gotten me 2 calls with people who had the job I was interested in learning about and one offer to refer me to a new role. The latter probably has a referral scheme at his company, so even though I am the one asking for help, he gets something out of it too.
Lukewarm
If you belong to a community, you have something in common with the people you are reaching out to, this is something in common to hook into when reaching out.
For example, I am interested in Effective Altruism (EA), because it’s the nerdiest way to give to do good in the world. I am not a big player in the space, but being part of the same community makes me slightly less of stranger, so several people have helped me out.
I have had some great chats with people at EA events as a result and learned about things like malaria bed nets, Wikidata, new career paths and a bunch of other stuff.
Used To Be Warm, Cooled A Little
Reconnecting with old friends has been the best surprise benefit of reaching out to people for help.
I don’t go in asking for the favour, I just catch up with them for a bit and often they’re happy to hear from me and I am happy to get talking to them again. Then I sprinkle in a quick ask.
We didn’t lose contact due to a fight or anything, but because people get busy and when you aren’t around someone physically everyday or regularly anymore it’s super easy to lose touch.
But, again, they’re often happy to help and if you’re sufficiently nice and they’re happy to hear from you .
Warm AF
When you already know someone and talk to them somewhat regularly at least, they probably like you and are willing to help. If they aren’t you need to be a better friend.
I have found that most people are happy to do favours and don’t feel like you are being a pest. You may find like me, that it’s hard to get over the idea that you’re being annoying by asking for something, but think about your friends, wouldn’t you want to help them?
There’s probably a limit to how many favours before you start to be annoying, but you can sense where this line is with your friends, just be human.
Jack’s Picks
Overnight Millionaires
It’s not as good as the dream for some peopleThe Curse of Early Success
Apparently succeeding too young can really mess you updo we ever get over things?
It feels horrible to lose a good friend
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