Coming from Arizona State, I initially found it difficult to get the attention of technology companies and venture firms in Silicon Valley. Early in my career, the biggest mistake I made was framing things in a ‘me-centric’ way versus digging into what companies need and framing my communications in terms of how I would add value. This is the difference between writing a cover letter that says “I would like this role because I’ve done X” instead of saying, “I will add value to your company by doing X”.
Whenever I’ve taken the latter approach of clearly stating how I’ll add value, I’ve found that I’m much more likely to get an enthusiastic response.
Also, in the process of thinking through the ways I’m able to contribute, I’m better able to vet opportunities that play to my strengths.
As an undergrad, I knew I wanted to explore a career in tech. I left an internship at a public company in Arizona where I already had a full-time offer, to take a lesser paying job working remotely for a market research firm in San Francisco. It was clear that San Francisco was the best place to build a career in tech. A few months into the role, I attended an industry conference in SF. To prep for the event, I put together a list of all the attendees I wanted to meet. At the top of my list was a Managing Director of a prominent venture firm. I researched a bunch of his prior investments and knew exactly what I wanted to talk to him about. However, when he arrived, he was immediately swarmed by people and ushered onto the stage. He left right after his talk. I quickly skimmed the attendee list again to see if any of his colleagues were at the event. As luck would have it, an EIR from his firm (I’ll call her “MG”) was also there. I managed to grab a seat next to her in the crowd and have a brief conversation with her in between presentations. Since I’d already done extensive research on the firm’s investments, I was able to highlight my own (somewhat limited!) experiences in tech -- a senior thesis on IoT in cities, an honors paper on the impact of machine learning on financial markets, and personal research on crypto and blockchain -- as experiences that would be directly relevant to her and the firms’ interests. This gave MG confidence that I could provide value on some of her projects. After working with her on a few small projects, she gave me more responsibility and brought me onto larger projects. Eventually, she offered me a full-time role working with her in SF. This was the beginning of my career in tech!
When I applied for my next role, I emailed the CEO twice with what was, in retrospect, very me-centric emails that focused on my interest in crypto. I received no response. So I returned to figuring out how I could create value for him and his company. My former boss was hosting a dinner for entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders in crypto and I made sure that she invited the CEO of the company I was interested in, knowing that he would benefit from the network of people at the event. The CEO attended the dinner and I had a chance to follow up with him there. Even then, he still wasn’t sure if I was a fit for the role. The other candidate he was interviewing for the same role had 8 years of experience and a couple of Ivy League degrees whereas I had less than one year of work experience at that point. To give him more confidence in my abilities, I proposed that we work together on a project that I knew would be high leverage for the company. I spent a week on a ‘work trial’ (IMO, a highly underrated way for companies to vet qualified candidates!). By the end of my trial week, one of the co-founders told me that I was a unanimous ‘yes’ across the company.
From all of these experiences, the key takeaway for me is that the best way to find new opportunities for yourself is to figure out how to create value for people.
To summarize:
Avoid emails to founders/companies that are ‘me-centric’ and focus on the value that you can create for the company.
Research the issues and problems that are important to an org and frame your knowledge and experience as directly relevant.
Send people events, news articles, tweets, etc. that you know will be of interest to them. This creates a touchpoint that keeps you top of mind. It also shows that you’re genuinely interested in their business and you understand what they care about.
Propose work trials where you’ll deliver on projects that are valuable to the org. This is a clear value-add and gives you the opportunity to figure out whether you work well together.
If you’d like to connect with Ryan and other smart generalists who are navigating their career journeys, you can apply to join Renaissance Collective here. And if you know someone who would benefit from this community, feel free to share this post with them.