We recommend spending 20 minutes on this section.
Talking about yourself can be stressful, especially if you have to summarize your whole career for a new contact. We recommend coming up with a basic blurb that you can whip out for every new phone call or cold email.
This is a strategic, two or three sentence summary that lays out who you are and what you want. It should – succinctly! – lay out your recent career history and areas of focus, with an emphasis on your transferable skills. We've provided some templates to help you craft blurbs for a couple of different situations – reaching out to a recruiter with a cold email and asking for an introduction from a friend. This is just to help you get started – feel free to personalize the language as much as you like.
Cold Email Reach Out Template
Highlight your transferable skills. Focus on showing, not just telling recruiters why you are good for the job. How your skills are extremely applicable.
Look closely at the job description to make the connections from your experience to the role (same thing you did for your resume) and make it easy for recruiters to see the connection.
Let's break it down:
Dear {Name},
I’ve noticed that {company of interest} has been a nominee for Best {name of category} for the past five years straight. I’m interested in that level of excellence and finding out more about {department or job you are interested in}.I have {number} years of experience working with {related skill}, {related skill}, and {related skill}. I am hoping to learn about {what to learn} from some of the best in the industry, and in my research, I came across {company on interest}. Our goals and interests are so aligned, I think we’d both accomplish more if I took my research and resources to your company.I’d love for an opportunity to meet and talk further about how we may work together.
Sincerely,
{your name}
"Please intro me" Template
When asking someone to make an introduction the key is to make dead simple!
This is where your introduction blurbs come in. The purpose of the introduction blurb is to provide a strategic, 2-3 sentence overview of YOU and your ask for your referrer to include in their note. In some cases, you may want to sell yourself a bit more in the email for someone to agree to take a meeting. Include this email below the fold! Make sure you write the blurb from the referrer's perspective so they can easily copy and paste it.
Let's break it down:
Hi {Name},
Hope all is well during these crazy times!
I am interested in learning more about {role, discipline, industry, company name, etc.}. Based off of my LinkedIn connections, it looks like you may know {name/position and hyperlink to their linkedin profile}. If so, would you feel comfortable making an introduction? No need to endorse me, I would just love a foot in the door.
Thank you in advance and I've included a blurb below to facilitate the introduction!
Thank you,
{your name}
Extended blurb example:
Ambika Nigam is the Founder of Zeit, a career path discovery platform for today’s multi-skilled generation. Zeit is a software platform that organizes the skills of today’s evolving world to help job seekers and companies better discover each other.
Ambika has been building digital products for over a decade. She was most recently Head of Growth Products at Bloomberg Media where she oversaw mobile apps, connected devices, and launched an innovation lab. Prior to Bloomberg, Ambika led the Business Design practice in IDEO New York where she developed new offerings and incubated ventures for clients on the future of work and future of media. Ambika’s work has been featured in Fast Company, Digiday, and CBS’s 60 Minutes. Ambika started her career in finance and marketing. She graduated from The University of Michigan and has a Masters in Science in Communications from Columbia University.
What phase are you ready to kick off?
Are there a list of questions you can start to gather to prepare for these conversations?
How can you approach each conversation with an ask and an offer so that you’re bringing value?
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