How To Transition From Finance To Tech

Sarah Vo

52 min readAug 4, 2018

The best way to transition from Finance to Tech is to wake up and do your homework.

When beginning your job search, set four goals for yourself:

1. Regain and maintain physical and mental health

2. Learn a new industry (technology startups)

3. Learn about companies and find job opportunities

4. Develop relationships and expand your network

Below, I’ll break down each of these goals in detail. The Google Sheet of resources by Alex Hardy would be very helpful.

Pitching for a role at a company is a sales & marketing process.

You are the product and you’re selling your brand but much more broadly you’re selling trust & confidence that you’re going to build something enormously valuable and that you’re going to be enjoyable to work hand-in-hand with over the coming decade of each other’s lives.

When you market your product: People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.

I. Be so good they can’t ignore you

Display the hustle that you’d display with the job.

1. Regain and maintain physical and mental health

Most people working on in finance severely neglect their mental and physical health. They rarely exercise, their diet is poor, and their stress levels are astronomical.

Restoring your mental and physical health would lay a great foundation for pursuing the job search.

This post is not meant to be super “self-help”-y, but I firmly believe there is power in both (a) building habits and (b) making those habits unrelated to your search in order to preserve your sanity. It can be exercise, meditation, writing, reading, etc.

2. Learn a new industry: technology startups

Tech companies/startups and financial firms are worlds apart in what their priorities are, how they operate, and what they’re like to work at. Learn as much as you can before applying for jobs. You’ll have a better sense for if startup life will be a fit for you, and it will help you identify interesting opportunities, interview more effectively, and hit the ground running if/when you join.

3. Learn about companies & find job opportunities

Find tech jobs at: John Gannon’s blog, Breakout List, Women in Wireless, Tech Ladies (if you’re a woman).

The Google Sheet has sources for where to find companies and job openings: Angel List, LinkedIn, Product Hunt, The Muse, Gary’s Guide, Join-Startups, Uncubed, Vettery, Hired, SquarePegHires.

Lists like the Breakout list and Wealthfront’s list can help you hone in on high potential companies. You may find that using the lens of industry/mission or stage to be a helpful way to narrow in on the type of company you’d like to join as well.

Many VC Firms have job portals on their company websites.

✿ Stay organized

Tracking your opportunities will make your search more manageable. You should make a simple ‘target companies’ and contact people list.

During your search, you’ll get exposed to many new companies. When you hear of one that sounds interesting, write it on the list. Even if the company doesn’t have an open or interesting role posted, list them anyway. In tech, the best jobs will often not be posted to a job board.

One of the benefits of reading tech news is learning which startups recently received funding. Companies that raise money generally do so to hire new people. Those are great companies to target.

✿ Determine your criteria

Narrowing your criteria will help you focus your search. Even if you are truly ‘industry agnostic’ and just want to work on something cool, you’ll need to have a better story when you interview. I suggest honing in on the following elements:

* Role at the Company: Understand your role. Probably the most important factor. People working in finance may no concept about the different typical roles at a startup. What you did before will determine, to a large extent, what you will do next. If you previously worked in banking and want to pivot into tech, you will likely be hired for a finance-related role in a tech company. If you spent 10 years in the airplane industry and want to start a company, you will likely found an aviation-related start-up. Just saying.

It is important to understand what a potential employer will expect of you. This can vary significantly by company, so ask around about a particular firm’s approach to professional staffing. See if you can figure out who the hiring manager is (aka your potential future boss). It can be helpful if this person also has financial experience, as they’ll understand your skillset and where you’re coming from more broadly, but certainly not a requirement.

If there is a jobs page at the company you’re interested in, check out the Operations, Business Operations (aka BizOps), Analyst and perhaps Product Manager roles (though those can be notoriously hard roles to get without any previous tech startup or product experience).

If you’re not a software developer, you’ll probably end up doing one of the following: Marketing, Sales, Growth, Finance, Business Development, Customer Success / Experience, Operations. Learn what each of these roles does.

The Google Sheet has some suggested resources to assist.

I found it very helpful to seek out people at startups who actually did these roles, and try to talk to them. Generally, the earlier stage the company, the less defined the role.

Speaking about VCs, generally, later-stage and growth equity firms place a have a heavier focus on deal support (due diligence and financial modeling) while earlier-stage firms tend to emphasize portfolio company work.

There is also a pretty wide range of expectations for the level of sourcing you will be doing. Almost all firms require investment professionals to actively source new opportunities and help build theses around particular companies and industries.

At the early stage, the ranks of the non-partner investor are disappearing. VC firms are going back to being mostly partner driven shops, where dealflow and decisions stay up top. They are, however, staffing up with specialists. Like lefties out of the bullpen, VC firms now have recruiting partners, pr and marketing experts, technologists-in-residents — and USV even has an on board activist. If you can’t walk into a firm and tout a specific skill that is a benefit to portfolio companies, you’re going to have a very tough time getting in.

Analyzing startups is not a portfolio company benefit. That’s a benefit to the VC firm. To the company, as a recently minted MBA with no startup experience who wants to run the 4th year numbers, you’re just a pain in the ass.

* Geography: How comfortable would you be working remotely? There can be drawbacks to your productivity, happiness, and job safety if you are not working closely IRL with your managers.

* Number of employees & Amount of funding: Think carefully about a company’s size. Funding is a good proxy for size & “stage.” Startups range in size or stage from seed stage (<$2m, <~10 people), series A (~$5–10m, ~10–70 people), series B (~$10–30m, ~30–200 people), to series C and beyond (~$20m+, 100+ employees). Note that these ranges are rough and vary by company. Crunchbase is a helpful place for looking up companies by funding raised and number of employees. Generally, the earlier the stage, the higher the risk. The earlier the stage of company, the more risk you’ll take on, but the more exposure you’ll have to things like finding product-market fit and the more equity you’ll have in the company. Your experience at companies of five people vs. 50 people vs. 500 people will be vastly different, even though each might be (wrongly) classified as a “startup.”

* Industry/Vertical: FinTech? HealthTech? EdTech? AdTech? The possibilities are (seemingly) endless. Coming from Finance, you may got the most traction with FinTech companies. If there is an area you’re interested in, such as women’s health, or space exploration, this can help focus your job search immensely. If you’re truly agnostic, pursuing a vertical where you have *some* experience and/or genuine interest is a good place to start. Don’t worry if you don’t have an industry you’re particularly drawn to though. Most companies don’t require industry expertise, and you may find that other factors of the job like stage, team and role are more important to you than industry. One quick way to search by industry is to filter by ‘market’ in Angelist’s company directory.

* Customer base (Business-to-Business [“B2B”] vs. Business-to-Consumer [“B2C”]): Who does the company market and sell to? How do its users or customers make decisions? Would your work / life experience help you succeed in one environment or the other?

Once you’ve pulled together a list of companies you’re excited about, it’s time to reach out.

Shotgun resume submissions result in hiring managers sifting through dozens of candidates to find the right person. (Good luck emerging from that particular pile.) To show the hiring manager you are the right candidate, you have to do the work. Instead of shot-gunning your resume, put in the time to determine a company you definitely want to work for — both in terms of the job and in terms of cultural fit.

Pretend I’m the hiring manager. “I would love to work for you,” you say. What I actually hear is, “I would love for you to pay me.” You can’t possibly know if you want to work for a company unless you know a lot about it; that’s the difference between just wanting a job and wanting an actual role in a business.

If you really want to maximize your chances of success, put as much effort into researching the company you’re interviewing for as you would a final you wanted to ace. Doing your homework will put you ahead of the curve. Fortune, as they say, favors the prepared.

Talk to friends, relatives, vendors, customers… anyone you can find. Check out management and employees on social media. When you know the people, you know the company. Learn as much as you can.

Follow people who work at that company/firm on Twitter. If they host events, try to get into them. If they run a forum, contribute to it. Demonstrate a track record of interest before you ask them to get interested in you.

Research the history, founders, key executives, culture, recent initiatives, product, new innovations, market, customer reviews, public financial data — the whole nine yards. Think about the user, how the product fits into the industry as a whole, new growth opportunities it could pursue in new markets. Moreover, use the product, and develop opinions about it — how could it be better, how could it be changed?

Research the shit out of the company looking to fill that role. Figure out what they need to be successful that you can deliver on. Dazzle them in the interview and cover letter by telling them in extreme detail how you’re going to solve their problems for them.

Unlike financial jobs that have clear requirements and a well-defined interview process, getting a startup job isn’t typically as straight-forward. There may not even be a job posting at the company you’re interested in, but don’t let that deter you.

Focus on the companies/firms where you want to work: Many of the best companies/firms have a process for hiring new employees/partners. They frequently tweet these positions out, often with specific application requests and short timelines. Their goal is to find people who are REALLY interested in their companies/firms.

✿ Pitching for the role

* Acquire the skills: You need to identify the skills you would need to acquire in order to be the obvious candidate. Make sure you have transferable skills, so career change is always possible.

From college admissions to office politics, most things in life are games. If you decide to play games, take the time to learn the rules first, even if you end up not following them.

If you’re trying to signal that you’re a member of someone’s tribe, you have to present evidence that you’re a member of their tribe. No one will ever think of you as a member of their tribe until they can actually see you as a member of their tribe. If you’re interviewing for finance, wear a suit. If you’re interviewing for tech, don’t wear a suit. Apply this to any context whatsoever ad infinitum and you get the idea.

If you’re trying to connect with someone, you have to learn how to speak their language. If you’re in VC, terms like due diligence, ROI, P2P, B2B, bootstrapping, will be basic terminology. If you’re in music, terms like tempo, measure, pianissimo, DC al coda, will be basic terminology. Apply this to any context whatsoever ad infinitum and you get the idea.

You shouldn’t be scared by the technical aspect, especially if you develop a baseline knowledge of how to communicate around a technical problem. Take an intro CS class, and dabble in a Python and a few other languages before your interview, which would be very helpful.

Pick up skills you don’t have. Yes, you learned how to model in Excel and make pretty slides, but there are still many gaps in your skillset. I’ve found they break down along the following lines: Data and analytics, Business developments and sales, product.

* Write a CV/Resume: Going to a top business school, having banking or consulting on your resume is an indicator to potential venture employers that you’re smart, aggressive, willing to work hard and well trained. There is clearly a bias in the world of finance towards VC jobs as training grounds. It will also bring you into contact with people who are likely to have networks that include venture capitalists as well as potentially up your chances of meeting key people. This is especially true if you’re thinking of later stage venture or private equity who — much more so than early stage venture — tend to look kindly on the training one gets in these jobs.

IMPACT. Always show impact in each role, ideally in the form “moved metric X by Y%”. Try to use industry standard metrics and definitions whenever possible (revenue, users, retention, activation, etc). Describe a few of the hardest problems you solved & exactly how you solved them.

Unless you are applying for a role in the same industry, don’t use buzzwords or unexplained acronyms anywhere in the resume. Basic spelling and grammatical errors are unacceptable and show a lack of attention to detail.

Don’t use weird layouts unless you are really good at graphic design. The typical hiring manager is going through dozens at a time, don’t make it hard for them to read.

* Write a cover letter: A brief introduction that shows you read the job description and specifically applied for this role goes a long way and can be the difference that gets you to the first step.

Do not use cover letter to summarize your CV/Resume. A cover letter is a business letter in narrative form, not a symbols/bullet-points fest.

Cover letter gives you the opportunity to tell the company who you are. They already know what you are from the CV/Resume. Make the most of the chance to get them to see beyond the CV/Resume.

If you are making a career change, use a cover letter to tell the reader what you’ve accomplished and how it directly translates to meeting the company’s needs. Put the focus on your reasons for making the career change, and bridge between the experience you have and the job you are trying to get (the requirements of the position), how your relevant skills and abilities in your past career will translate to your new career, how switching industries is an advantage over other job seekers who have worked in the industry for years. Also offer a unique lens to view problems.

And remember, enthusiasm goes a long way. Hiring managers get excited about applicants that really show a desire to succeed in the role and industry they are applying to.

* Prepare for the interview: Your story is an essential part of your job-search efforts. Don’t overlook it.

Among the hundreds or thousands of applicants for any given job, there will always be candidates with more relevant experience, more education, or closer connections with decision makers. Those are aspects you can’t control.

What you can control, however, is how you tell your story.

Become a marketer of your product. What are your customers’ needs and how does your product address those needs in a way that others don’t? Make your recruiters’ lives easier by owning your narrative. Why do you want to apply for that position? What have you done in the past that’s related to it? What unique skills or experiences can you bring to the table that would benefit your team?

Candidates don’t realize that interview questions such as “tell me about yourself” or “walk me through your resume” are often the most important and advantageous questions asked. It’s an opportunity to tell your story and steer the conversation in whatever direction you choose. These questions are not an invitation to list every role and responsibility you’ve ever had but rather convey your knowledge and differentiator.

It’s important to craft a story about how your experience is relevant to what you want to do. When pitching yourself for one of these roles, think of how your skillset & experience would translate into the role you’re targeting. Make sure to use the language that matches the job posting. Pull keywords from the posting and “naturally” integrate them throughout your resume. For example, coming from investment banking, it might be difficult to land a role managing a digital marketing team. However, experience with spreadsheets and interacting with clients might make you a good fit for business development or partnerships.

Have a coherent story. Companies hire largely based on pattern recognition. They need to be able to glance at your resume, skim your cover letter, or talk to you for five minutes and immediately see why you would be a great candidate.

Go work at a company that you believe in. Do not optimize for job title, find the coolest company and tell them you’ll “do anything.” Offer to work for free if you have to to show your value. This is the secret to the universe. I still do free things routinely to get people hooked on what I can do. If the company grows, you’ll grow with it and the job title will eventually come.

While working at that company do the job you were hired to do between 8 am and 6 pm. Then do the job you WANT to be doing for that company between 6 pm and 8 am. Eventually if you do the job you want to be doing for free, the company will be forced to start paying you for it if you’re any good.

The best way to prepare for all this is to actually go through the consulting process, but there are also online resources that outline the types of questions you can expect. The second best way to do that is through practice — call every friend who has experience and is willing to help, and do 20–30 minute mock interviews until it is almost like muscle memory.

✿ Public service announcement

Regardless of what you want to do, you need to build your personal brand. Start with an active online presence, because, you know, it’s 2019 and people need to be able to find you on the interwebs. In fact, they shouldn’t have to find you — they should just see you, and then start seeing you everywhere. Lots of doors opened up to me because I spent a lot of time in the last 2 years building my online brand and persona, specifically on Twitter.

Leverage the power of media to build up social profile and connect with people => Build and expand your reputation and reach by delivering value => Use that to grow your business. See The importance of personal branding for more information.

Maintain an online presence that’s respectful, professional, and courteous, noting that others may be able to see articles, comments, images, or videos that you’ve shared or commented on. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Ensure your online brand reflects the same professionalism and personality that makes you so engaging and has gotten you this far in real life.

Be prepared before diving in to the job search. Even if leaving your current job hasn’t crossed your mind, you should always have two things ready and up to date — your resume and LinkedIn profile. That’s where employers are going to look for you. Make sure your LinkedIn is current with no egregious spelling or grammatical errors. LinkedIn (along with Twitter) is basically the front page of your internet identity.

Some companies ask potential applicants not to send in a traditional resume, but instead to point to the applicant’s various activities around the web (their blog, articles they’ve authored, companies they are helping out with, etc). While this may be an extreme example of a firm valuing the online presence of potential colleagues (and one that has worked very well for the firm), having a visible profile online that you can reference and point to will be helpful in many a tech job search (especially so if the firms you are seeking employment from invest in these areas, as USV does). Your online activity can and should extend to reading and sometimes (thoughtfully) commenting on the blogs of the now vast list of VCs/Techies that write a blog. These sorts of interactions are just one way to start to engage in a conversation with people in the industry you might one day work with.

And if the idea of a new opportunity has crossed your mind? Before you begin applying, know this: In cover letters, most people tend to talk about what they want instead of how they can help a company reach its goals. Many think the latter is implied, but it’s not — and you’ve got to draw that very specific line. It’s your responsibility to match those job description keywords and show how you line up with the role. There’s a difference between ‘I can contribute to your success in XYZ ways’ versus ‘I’m a great candidate, look at me’. The key here is to look at the success marker for the job and then be very specific about how what you’ve done can help replicate that kind of success. Use concrete numbers wherever possible.

✿ Get started and have impact

* Determine how you will make an immediate impact in the role from day one.

Doing the job before you get the job is a great way to get the job.

Many companies see training as a necessary evil. Training takes time, money, effort… all of which are in short supply. An ideal new hire can be productive immediately, at least in part.

While you don’t need to be able to do everything required in the job, it helps if the company can see an immediate return on their hiring investment. (Remember, hiring you is an investment that needs to generate a return.)

Know your company’s goals and metrics cold, especially if you’re the one responsible for that area of the business. 1/ It’s critical to your understanding of the business to understand what the major levers are and how they are defined and 2/ it impacts your reputation among your company’s leadership. And don’t be afraid to ask about how metrics are calculated or defined. Sometimes metrics are thrown together hastily without much documentation, and may even have errors in them.

Be proactive in your 1:1s. Come prepared with your point of view on the business, with what’s working and what’s not with how things are getting done today. Show that your thinking is rigorous and that you have thoughtful and creative potential solutions for the problems of the business. This will lead to opportunities for you to take on more responsibility and will steepen your learning curve.

You can start thinking up strategies for helping them, potentially with hiring, marketing and business development opportunities. One thing that I see too many people moving from the finance world doing, both in attempts to get into VC and to startups, is relinquishing the resources they have at their old job. They can’t wait to get out of their bank or consulting firm, but they forget that they have connections to something that startups want desperately — money. If you want to break into the startup world and you come from investment banking, don’t forget the one thing that your resume says that actually speaks to entrepreneurs — you know potential investors.

Focus on hitting goals and moving metrics. You joined a startup so you could build things. This means figuring out what actions will result in moving your company’s key metrics, and doing those things.

Put what you can offer on display. If you’re a programmer, mock up a new application. If you want a sales position, create a plan for how you’ll target a new market or customer base, or describe how you will implement marketing strategies the business doesn’t currently use.

A tell and show is your chance to prove you know the company and what you can offer. Your initiative will be impressive and you’ll go a long way toward overcoming concerns that you’re all hat and no cattle.

Is it fair you’re doing a little work on spec? Should you have to create a mockup or plan to get the job? Not really, and probably not… but doing so will set you apart.

Never let “fair” — when the only person “disadvantaged” is you — get in the way of achieving your goals.

* The earlier you find a way to demonstrate your value, the better off you’ll be.

If you held an internship prior to recruiting for full-time jobs, that’s a very strong signal that you’re not only interested in tech in theory, but also qualified and competent in practice.

Of course, having prior experience is certainly not the only path to building legitimacy. If you’re interested in a role but lack any experience, you can demonstrate passion and pick up experience via a “side-hustle.” This could take many forms: building an audience on a blog or social media, helping a friend with their startup, or doing free research (If you see a VC firm that’s investing in a particular sector, develop your own opinion about the space and present it to the VC for free), putting together a prototype for an idea you have, winning a hackathon, leading a club, finding a bug in the company’s website, writing about technology, hosting events or conferences, starting a syndicate on AngelList, building a following on ProductHunt, advising companies, helping accelerators with sourcing or advising, starting a YouTube channel to talk about your favorite tech products, publishing a portfolio to showcase your design work, launching a new product or service of your own creation.

II. Develop relationships & expand network

Be An Ecosystem Adopt — Become an active member of your local startup ecosystem. Spend as much time as possible in the company of aspiring and accomplished entrepreneurs. An effective way to associate yourself with high-caliber members of your startup community is to lend your gratis support to a venture accelerator or incubator or lab or school. In addition, establish relationships with the accountants, bankers, lawyers and investors who comprise your local startup world. This probably won’t lead directly to a job in Tech, but it will help you execute the next task.

Having connections isn’t the requirement; it’s access to connections that matters, and this is something entirely within your control.

The nature of the business is relationship driven.

Building a network — get a warm intro is no secret and it is key to landing any competitive job.

We live in a world where 85% of jobs are filled via networking. Building relationships and cultivating network are major keys that can supercharge your success. You need to seek and partner with the highest quality and smartest people in the industry. Your network is your source of opportunities. (Of course you can’t come up with opportunities on your own).

The easiest way to get a job is leveraging your connections. In today’s climate, you will have a much easier time landing a job if you have a connection that can help you. No point in beefing your resume if you can’t even get your foot in the door. Be the one who knocks. You need to use the backdoor to gain access to the hidden job market. The big potential win is that by laying all this groundwork, you’ll find your way into a “hidden job” — one that isn’t found online or on a job board or even published. That’s huge. Remember to keep an eye open for hidden jobs that do not yet exist at a certain time. Once a company posts an open job, you are immediately in competition with a gazillion people, usually, for attention. One solution is to apply for a job that doesn’t yet exist at a certain company. In order to do this, you’ll need a solid understanding of the organization and its potential holes in leadership.

Don’t wait to be called for an interview. Don’t even wait for an opening to be posted; after all, you’ve identified ways you can immediately help the company you want to work for. Wrangle an introduction, meet with someone who can actually influence the hiring decision, and pitch away.

You can start the process by sending along what experts call a “value introduction letter,” or a succinct letter that introduces you as a person and the value you can afford the company. You’ll want to outline a clear action plan for addressing the company’s key pain points and actionable ideas for solving them. Consider starting with a question, like, “Are you looking to optimize operations and save on costs?” and then go into quantifiable metrics that you personally generated in your current or most recent role. The proof lies in the results.

Think it won’t work? It will — as long as you show the person you contact how they will also benefit. Say, “I really want to work for your company. I know you’re in charge of social media marketing and I’ve developed a data-driven way to analyze activities, ROI, brand awareness… I’d love to take you to lunch and show you. If you hate my ideas, at least you got a free lunch. If you love them, you learned something. What do you have to lose?”

A friend of mine who runs a tech company has hired four people who approached him in a similar fashion. He’s a go-getter; he loves hiring go-getters. And he loves when they find him.

Just make sure you go straight to describing how the company will benefit from hiring you. Say, “Your website is good, and I can make it even better. Here are changes I will make in the first month, and here is how those changes will improve conversions and SEO results. And here’s a mockup I created of a new site design.”

Approach them right and people will pay attention — especially entrepreneurs and small businesses. I don’t know any smart people who won’t drop everything to learn how to improve their business.

Most people don’t mind being closed. Plus a decision put off until tomorrow is a decision added to the to-do list; no one wants more on their plate.

If you truly know you want the job — and by this point, you should — ask for it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Who knows: if you’ve worked hard to truly set yourself apart, you might get hired on the spot.

It’s best to start early when you are still working for your current company. The secret lies in presenting yourself as a “passive candidate” — someone who is interested in a new professional opportunity but not currently seeking one.

A person who is already working for a competitor is seen as a prized candidate, as opposed to someone who is actively seeking employment. Recruiters are particularly zealous about seeking a prized “passive candidate” — someone who is open to new opportunities but not actively seeking them.

Why? The psychology of hiring managers and recruiters often goes like this: If someone is good, they are already working for a competitor, and if they aren’t employed or are submitting their resume actively, there is often some kind of problem.

Alternatively, even if there isn’t a problem, they can go all the way through a long and expensive hiring process only to find that the candidate has a competing job offer from another company. However, if they are dealing with a candidate who isn’t looking elsewhere, that risk goes away.

One mistake I’ve seen is that people will hold off meeting with a potential employer until their resume is utterly perfect. You don’t necessarily have to do this. Of course you need to be good at communicating what you do, but over-preparing is probably not as valuable as building a relationship.

When interacting with a potential employer, demonstrate that you have spent time building your network in the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem. Venture Capitalists and Techies rely heavily on their networks to stay relevant in their particular sector and to ensure that they are interacting with the most promising entrepreneurs and companies. They will be looking to add people to their team who have focused on this core competency.

This requires a lot of proactive reaching out and showing off some EQ. It is an art and requires a lot of strategies. If it is too much for you, maybe success doesn’t mean a lot. Move on.

Skip the job boards, it’s all about a referral.

It’s really important to build good relationships with recruiters. Business is all about relationships. We’ve all made made bad hiring decisions, so a referral from someone we trust is like gold.

Unless it’s through on-campus recruiting, dropping your resume into an application link is rarely the fastest way to get a first round interview. More often than not, resume drops are black holes. Referrals, on the other hand, are your best friend.

Referrals are the most surefire way to get an interview. A referred applicant is 15 times more likely to be hired than an applicant from a job board. Job boards have just a 0.4% effectiveness rate, according to a recent study, while the rate for someone who comes in the door via an employee referral is over 5%. The best job search is the job search that you don’t need to do.

But while some job seekers seem clued in to that fact — almost 35% applied to their most recent position through a referral — the majority have not.

Before jobs are posted online they’re filled either internally or through a referral from a trusted source. These gigs go to the people who are already standing outside the door. The recruiters tend to operate on historical data about who makes a good candidate, which is usually at big tech companies. You need to have enough legitimacy so that recruiters don’t look at your resume and wonder why you are applying for the job.

Even better, candidates don’t need to be a perfect fit to be hired for these jobs. Instead they’re evaluated based on their track record of past performance, leadership ability and upside potential.

It’s because of four reasons. 1/ Their trusted sources already have a strong reference on their behalf, so there’s less screening required. 2/ There’s no leadership/relationship risk. The team already knows each other. 3/ They are likely to move very quickly and follow a great person to another role, which accelerates hiring. 4/ Great people associate with other great people. More trusted referrals means faster, easier and better hiring.

That’s terrific leverage.

What drives these underlying dynamics? Supply and demand. For each role listed on a public website, top companies are usually flooded with more applicants than they can realistically process. Make their jobs easier by showing them that you’re the one.

Without that network or with the wrong network, recruiting costs and time increase. Success rates of new hires declines. And more uncertainty is injected into the business.

1. Identify the right type of people/companies and build your list

Make a list of 5 companies you’d like to work for and for each company, try to find and reach out 5 people who currently work there. You want to be as certain as possible that the company you might jump to will make you happier than the one you’re leaving, and it’s hard to know that until you hear from people who currently work there, and chances are they would be able to help you get a job interview.

✿ Get as specific as possible

The narrower your scope, the easier it is to focus.

✿ Organize your list

You should track your curated list of people in a Google Sheet with all relevant details.

Again, it’s a numbers game. Manage your recruiting process like a sales funnel. Create an excel spreadsheet of firms and include team members for each firm complete with whatever professional (and even personal) details you can find.

I don’t want to be too prescriptive about the length of the list, as there’s no magic number. However, I generally find that a minimum of 10, and ideally in the 15–20 range is good. Too many more and it’s hard to do it well and target effectively; much less and you’re not feeding the funnel.

Here are some keys for all those involved on getting a job can use to enter through the backdoor:

2. Find out how to get connected

The High Level

✿ Use your network / Lean on your friends

It would be great if they’re in your circle of friends. If you are in the fortunate position of knowing those people, then great, you can start there directly.

Networking is a valuable long-term play no matter what career path you’re aspiring to. However, it would be unrealistic to expect to have a connection into every company — or VC firm on your list. So how do you reach those “untouchables”?

If you don’t know those people directly, here are a few more thoughts on what to do next.

If you are not connected to any of them but have a friend who is well connected, you should go through him/her. They will trust a recommendation from this source extremely highly. The best type of referral is from close friends or co-workers who can vouch for your performance, though you should also try tapping into your network or contacting alumni from your school.

Most opportunities seem to connect in second degree networks. The goal is knowing of these as they come up, and being top of mind when they do.

Remember that meeting people comes down to warm intros. A warm intro to a company always beats a cold email. Figure out who can you can get warm intros from. People are always much more receptive to introductions from people that they know and trust. The “warmer” the person that’s giving you the intro, the better.

✿ Make new connections

Let’s say you just got here and don’t know anyone. No friends, no network, nada.

If you don’t know any connections, then it’s time to start connecting and building relationships. Expand your perspectives and meet new people. Stop trying to take on the world by yourself. People will support you, inspire you, and help you if you simply reach out. If you are struggling to connect via your network, your next best bet is to meet them in person. Do an extensive research on those people and find ways to meet and become their friends.

It’s still doable.

People are intimidated by the concept of “networking,” but meeting people is surprisingly simple.

You can come to the Bay Area and meet entrepreneurs very easily.

The Nitty Gritty

✿ Improve your interpersonal skills

Before approach your potential employer you have to put in your research. You have to know what the person has done in their life, what they are doing now and even a little about their family and other personal details. You might find that the person likes a particular sport or that they have a particular hobby. These can all be items and points of discussion when you start your efforts to reach out.

Above all else, you need to show interest in the person. If you put forth the effort to get to know them even before reaching out you’re showing them that you are willing to work for what you want in life. That effort can lead to that person seeing potential or seeing right through unfound enthusiasm.

When you think of getting a job, think of it like a sales funnel.

The best way to get a job in Tech is to spend a few years helping people who work in tech, with no agenda other then to build up goodwill. If you do a really good job and help people in a meaningful way, at some point within those few years you will likely get recruited into Tech, asked to apply for a job, or receive an unsolicited referral. Most people will never get to work in Tech because they will not be willing to “help people” for a sustained period of time, without a clear path into a job. People don’t like doing work, unless they know exactly what they’ll get out of it. And if you’re one of the few willing to take the path less clear, you’ll find most of the competition weeded out by the unwillingness of others to do the same.

This is especially true in VC. “Networking” as a way to get a job into venture capital does not work. Applying for jobs in venture capital very rarely works.

VCs love free help. If you have skills that will augment their deal flow, due diligence capabilities or simply expand their network, you can make yourself an asset within the big world of tech. In other words, this is best done when you have developed a familiarity with a sector and can provide deal flow or chat about an interesting market thesis. Put your money where your mouth is — don’t be afraid to work for free for a firm/company you have a good relationship with and want the position, even if it’s not immediately available.

See my tips for improving interpersonal interactions for more information.

Fortunately for you, people in tech tend to generously volunteer their time and insight to engage with folks interested in breaking in to the industry.

* Ask for intros: You can get started by asking for intros.

* How to add to each convo: You might ask, what do you end up talking about? What value can you add as someone who’s just moved to the area and is starting in tech? The answer is, you simply ask for advice. People move to the Bay Area from all over the world because they’re incredibly passionate about what they’re building. They love talking about that. and if you have something that you’re passionate about too, and ask for advice, you were sure to get a lot of it. The culture in the SF tech community is very open and the intro culture makes it easy to chat with a variety of new people.

* Having a thing: The conversations are more productive when you have “a thing.” What I mean by that is that all of these conversations and networking are more useful when you are starting a company, creating a new podcast, are working on a new project or book, or something else. When you have a directed goal in mind, then the conversations often are more valuable for all parties involved, because you were making yourself an expert in a particular area and your questions are more relevant. Otherwise you will surely encounter very busy people who simply refuse to “grab coffee” to “catch up” because it’s a poor use of time. I encourage you to be on a quest of your own, and even better a particularly interesting quest, so that your conversations with people can be as productive as possible.

* Find your cult: For me, I asked people about various mysteries of the tech industry I didn’t understand as an outsider. Why were there so many consumer successes in the Bay Area but not elsewhere? How does angel investing and VC work? Why don’t they build more houses/offices in the Peninsula? And so on.

I sometimes joke that the Bay Area is ruled by cults. Back in 2007, there was a cult surrounding quantified self, which intersected with lots of folks kicking off Crossfit, keto, Soylent, and other health trends. There were people building robots and hardware. The PayPal mafia was a thing, but look a little closer, and there was a huge network of Stanford CS people and even Canadian mafias. And Burning Man people. In 2007, Y Combinator was just getting off the ground, and I was lucky to meet many of the early folks back when they were living in North Beach on strictly ramen diets. Today, those cults have evolved but they still exist — there is a huge advantage in finding one that suits you, or even better, starting one.

* Blogging/Writing is very helpful: If you want to reach the most people, learn to make videos. If you want to reach the smartest people, learn to write.

The most effective networking strategy I’ve found has nothing to do with conferences, cocktail hours, cold emails, or any of the common ideas you hear:

1) Do interesting things.
2) Share them publicly.
Like-minded people will come to you.

Writing is a superpower.

1) Pick a high value, emerging industry. Learn about your favorite obscure topic.
2) Write about it.
3) Share your writing online.

Then, hundreds of interesting people from around the world will contact you. And some will become your best friends. Can’t recommend it enough.

The easiest way to be discovered right now in technology and perhaps many fields is to create your own independent blog (which is your own website or Quora or Medium profile) and write then share your content on Twitter, or use Twitter for microblogging through tweet storms.

There is a virtuous cycle in talking to interesting people, writing down expanded versions of ideas that come up, thus being exposed, to more interesting people, and rinsing and repeating. This core loop helped power the growth of my professional network over the past few years.

It’s weird to think that accidentally developing a habit of writing and blocking would still be with me today. In fact, this habit is so powerful that I recommend doing it above and beyond almost any other professional “networking” activity. Of course today you might be making videos or podcasts instead of writing. Or if you’re an engineer, publishing your code on GitHub. It’s all the same concept. Putting your work into the world, whether it’s text or video or code, and letting that engage the world.

In this way, you are *building your network while you sleep*. People find you and your work and your ideas, so that you don’t have to put in time for 1 million coffee meetings.I broke down relationship development into the following:

• Social Media

• Email outreach

• In-person meetings

• Tech Events

✿ Social Networks: your secret weapon

This seems obvious but spend time where the people you want to meet hang out. If you want to meet VCs → Twitter. If you want to meet engineers or designers or learn those skills → hackathons are a good place to start. Build a strong network in a relevant, concentrated space. Reach out to people who have a job you think you’d be interested in doing.

* LinkedIn is probably the most “cold-call” like of all the techniques, but it can work if you do it properly. With the right setup, your LinkedIn profile can become a passive lead generator for new opportunities. But if you’re only using LinkedIn as a digital résumé placeholder, you’re missing out on hundreds of potential opportunities. You need to recognize that LinkedIn is a network of 400 million people, not just a database of them. It is also an incredibly powerful resource when it comes to skipping the online application process. It can help you reach out directly to the person who is on point for filling your dream role.

Let’s say you’re applying for an account management role at Google in New York. Searching LinkedIn for “Account Director + Google + New York” will usually bring up the most senior person in the department. Then you can use the steps in this article to find their email address and begin building a relationship.

Go on LinkedIn search for Googlers or people from your target companies. Figure out which open group they are in. Join that group. Go into member list, find the person and message them (a trick to message people without InMail). Tell them that you want to work for their company and ask for advice.

Make sure you do your homework before sending messages. Do your research: Understand the role, organization, and individual job responsibilities for the person who you’re contacting, and tailor messages to individuals, rather than sending a generic, one-size-fits-all note.

The Paradox of LinkedIn: Twitter does a better job at being LinkedIn than LinkedIn does. The meta idea of LinkedIn is to build a quality network. However, this obvious signal attracts zero-sum players: Recruiters and Salespeople. This kills the quality network.

What ties all these paradoxes together is this: The stronger the signal, the less effective the signal can be. As a result, the beauty lies in the subtle signals and counter signals.

* Twitter is really really important.

I was initially a huge Twitter skeptic. I thought it was a platform to post useless life updates and navel-gaze. Or another superficial channel to follow celebrities.

In reality, some of the best analysis I’ve read, deepest conversations I’ve had, and tightest relationships I’ve formed have happened on Twitter. I’ve learned so much, deepened relationships, and even met new people IRL because of it.

Twitter is the thinking person’s social media platform, when used correctly. It is what we think LinkedIn is. It is the fastest way to accelerate your career. It’s the best way to learn faster, build your resume, and find peers and collaborators who can create job and business opportunities for you.

In the context of the job search, it’s an amazing tool to stay in the “flow” of tech news and analysis. Twitter is television for intellectuals. The idea of “learning in public” is irresistible once you figure out how to open source your thinking & level up with feedback loops from a small, informed, engaged readership. Crossing the inflection point is hard since we are conditioned to learn only in controlled environments.

Twitter is useful if you have a large network or friends with large networks, or a connection who can amplify your voice. (Facebook can be more broadly useful, though, because you can join groups that are associated with opportunities in your field and monitor posts in groups you are already affiliated with.)

Twitter and Quora have many of the world’s smartest people. You can easily find like-minded people who also want to deepen and broaden perspectives there. If used correctly, it can 10x your chances of landing a great job in tech, especially if you have a blog or portfolio or resume available for view online. Twitter allows you to connect with people that otherwise would be impossible. I cannot overstate how magical that is. It’s a great way to interact with Founders, Executives, Investors, Media Influencers. Many of these folks would never respond to your email, phone call, or stop to chat with you on the street — However (inexplicably) they’ll respond to tweets. Sometimes you use sites like Twitter, Quora and LinkedIn not only for the sake of gaining knowledge or writing. Your content is just the key to open other doors. Most of the time I don’t write the best content. However it gives me an excuse to reach out to people in a less creepy stalky way.

Sean Rose’s career path is a good example.

Keith Rabois has hired people solely based on their tweets or their Quora answers. Keith has discovered insightful people on Twitter and ended up meeting them in person. Keith has offered people jobs, without meeting them in person, just by reading their published material on sites like Quora and Twitter.

I built most of my “adult” network on Twitter. I can’t stress enough how valuable it is to use if you work in tech.

Everyone must be onboarded! But it’s still so hard for people to join without someone to guide them through how to use it. So here are some tips for novices:

* Define yourself and ask yourself what your interests are. I would suggest to have 3 topics that you’re most interested.

* Start by using Twitter passively to consume content. Don’t read news. Read independent writers, not publications. If you want original ideas, you can’t consume what everybody else is consuming. Escape the present. We’re trapped in a Never-Ending Now — blind to our place in history, engulfed in the present moment, overwhelmed by the slightest breeze of chaos.

I personally do prefer to update generic news at theSkimm and the pages I’m following on Facebook rather than Twitter. Of the 800+ accounts I follow on Twitter, a half dozen or so are publications such as brands, companies and online publishers. I’m not interested in reading a press release or generic tweet on Twitter. Instead, I only follow people and prefer to hear candidly from the Co-founder or Head of the division or Investor or Media Influencer or Journalist/Analyst so that I can stay informed and mentally in tune with their recent success, announcement, failure or wisdom.

* Actively manage who you follow.

One quick exercise to work backwards and become an early adopter of people is to think of the products and companies you love or use on a daily basis. Chances are they created by people you admire and/or would want to connect with. I’ve developed a habit of visiting the About/Team page of almost startup/company I hear and read about out of a passionate curiosity. Then I look up them on Twitter. The things and people you discover are amazing.

Google search the lists of people to follow on Twitter in a specific topic/industry, or the rankings of people in that industry and look up them on Twitter afterwards. (I rarely do this though. Instead I often see them randomly on news pages I’ve been following on Facebook.)

Search for your interests with a hashtag e.g #VC (for Venture Capital) and see the people in the search, you will find many.

Follow relevant tech people and absorb what’s going on. A quick tip for a focused people search is to find those great people you know of and go through their activities. Read through the tweets of them. See who they are regularly engaging in conversation. See who they tweet with or who they follow. Look for who people you enjoy follow. See what others see by copying follow graphs of others into lists. Ask for recommendations on who to follow from people you respect. This way Twitter starts knowing your taste and provides you with recommendation as well. This will result in a tree branch like path. You can gain a ton of value by simply following relevant accounts.

* New features unlock with scale of active followers.

I think there are two onboarding challenges. Who to follow. And features only unlocked by having engaged followers. Wonder if there should be onboarding program for friend of friends into Twitter.

* Less retweets, more original tweets and replies (ok to retweet with commentary). If you’re shy about tweeting — don’t be! “Just do it”

There are two choices you can make with the content you produce.
1. Play on the News i.e. what is novel and ephemeral.
2. What is timeless.
What do you want to be known for? What do you think will stand the test of time?

All the best content and conversation is in the replies. Study replies section of power users for discovery. Reply to threads you find interesting! Good way to “meet” people.

* Find your tribes and then resonate.

* Pick 3 people you think are doing a good job learning on Twitter & observe them for a month. Ryan Hoover was one of them. I spent a lot of time observing how he used it and modeled off of it until I found my own approach. His early writing on the origins of Product Hunt talks about how crucial online relationships were for him.

* See How to be good at Twitter for more information.

The Google Sheet has a good guide for doing so and also some Twitter accounts for you to start following. (Find more people to follow at my Twitter @sarahvo91)

✿ Email Outreach

Blind Emails Suck: The corollary of blind in-person meetings being good is that blind not-in-person emails suck. They probably receive around 20k such emails each year, and while they are careful to spend time on each and every one, the lack of a human connection means that it can be super tough to evaluate whether a person is one they believe they can help.

For 99.99% of those inquiries, they just don’t have time to actually respond to them. Otherwise, they would spend their entire day talking to random people. Cold email is almost never going to work and is a subpar use of your time — which is the single-most valuable asset for a techie.

You should assume that if you just email a “cold” job application, it will not get lifted off the resume pile (unless that’s a strong one). Given the current desirability of working in tech, companies have all of the hiring leverage. It sounds cliché, but you must stand out.

One such way to stand out is making these cold emails a little warmer or being referred to an opportunity or person you’re interested in connecting with via a “warm introduction.” This is where someone you know, writes an email vouching for you to someone you don’t know (but want to be connected with). It is a deep-seated tradition in tech. Cold emails should be concisely written and warmly sent. Just use email to connect with a broad group of people who you think would be additive to your job search.

When asking for a warm intro, certain etiquette is expected. This is a good overview of rules for requesting an introduction to someone you’d like to meet. See How To Turn A Cold Email Into A $2.5M Seed Round by Allie Janoch for more information.

Here are other tips:

Proofread. All. Of. Your. Emails. Nothing will torpedo your credibility more quickly than email typos. Prospective Employer: “If you can’t compose an important five sentence email without spelling or grammatical errors, how can I trust you to market or sell my product, or run my company’s finances?” Many people believe this. Mistakes will hurt you. Proofread all of your emails. A good proofreading trick I learned was to read the draft of your email backwards, i.e. starting at the end and reading upwards to the beginning.

When asking a favor from someone, your goal is to make their life (and fulfillment of the favor) as easy as possible. So when you ask for an intro, make sure the email that YOU send to THEM is forwardable. It should be a clean email (not a reply to a previous thread). It should include a few sentences on who you are, what you’re asking, and why. Be concise — Use three bullet points max. If you can’t describe who you are, why they should help, and how they should help in 3–5 sentences they will probably not read it anyway.

Offer context on who you are first — If you two met somewhere, remind him/her. If you two went to the same school, know people in common, are from the same place, anything. If you both have any connections in common, highlight them. Getting a referral from someone you know is a good reason. You can reach out to that person and let them know that a mutual friend or acquaintance referred you to them. Even something as simple as saying that you saw that person at a local event and didn’t have time to introduce yourself can be an acceptable reason. Or maybe you’re reaching out because you follow that person on social media and find yourself agreeing with them on a number of items. If you have done anything impressive, tell him/her. Interesting as it may be, don’t include your entire life’s history. Your description of yourself should be three–four sentences at most. People are busy.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK — things work because people pay it forward. You’ll be surprised at how many people will help, do introductions, or give you quick feedback if you ask kindly, are precise in your request, and concise.
Have a very short first paragraph that has an “ask” in it or “the point of the email.” Busy people see a long email as an obstacle and often move on to the next, easier-to-process one.

Have a specific ask. Offer the reason for your request. Be precise in your request — “Can you help me?” is bad. “Can we get on a call?” is bad. “Do you know person X and could you forward the following blurb to them?” is great. “I am applying to YC. Does my application make it clear what I build?” is great. The most important element of your first correspondence is having a reason for getting in contact. People don’t like to be bothered, but research shows that if you provide a reason for doing something that you’re more likely to get a favorable response. I had a great response rate to cold emails when I had a specific ask, like a quick informational interview or specific advice on the job application process. When you reach out with a clear purpose, people are typically very willing to help. People are inundated with, and loathe the open-ended: “We should get coffee sometime” Better to say something like “As [introducer] mentioned, I’m in the process of figuring out my next opportunity. Given your move to [Company Y] after your time in [Industry Z], it would be great to learn more about how you decided to make the move”. It needs a story about why you would like to have coffee with this person. I’m not saying you have to stroke their ego, but it helps.

Explain why it’s related or why they should help you. Tell them why they can uniquely help — Do your research and don’t ask them for help on things they can’t help with. If you didn’t articulate why and how they can uniquely help you, they assume you are spamming a bunch of people to ask for the same thing. Or even better, share your intentions and desire for help. I recommend starting the conversation by stating your reason for reaching out. Ask the person a few questions about themselves. Lead into their professional life and look for a way to move the conversation into your desires for them to be your helper. For example, ask the person about something they’re working on now. Once you’ve given them time to tell their story or to explain the situation, mention your interest in the topic and move into your desires as a professional. This is the perfect way to find common ground and show that a potential relationship can make sense. Discuss what you’re doing right now, share your goals and what you want to work on. Be direct.

Add value. It’s about them, not you. If it’s for business, just be more direct and tell them exactly how you can help them. Understanding what’s in it for the other party — the why — to meet is an essential consideration before making the ask for a coffee. The more other-centered and mutual you can be with the request, the higher the probability that your investment time will yield a benefit.

Do not undercut your own authority — Don’t apologize for asking. Don’t tell them a sob story. Stay factual. If you demonstrate you are not confident or irrational, they are less likely to want to help you.

Invite some of them to coffee — your treat if possible — to connect on a personal level. You can get away with a lot more if you’re the one buying the drinks. People in general will want to help if it doesn’t cost them much. Get great at asking for coffee. Some people are always open for coffee, some need a strong reason, and some people simply don’t meet with strangers regardless of how strong your ask is. However, If you don’t ask, you’ll never get the meeting.

Offer three specific times of day to meet, at “whatever location is most convenient” for the person you’ve been intro’d to. Throw in: “if none of those times work, happy to propose more.” Scheduling sucks, and your goal is to make this as frictionless as possible.

If you want an action taken DO NOT write to multiple people unless it’s clear who is in charge of the action. Groups often defer assuming somebody else will action (free rider problem). If you need multiple people to take actions send separate, individual emails addressed to each person separately. It takes more work — it yields better results. Also, beware of Gmail font problems (Google it)

Here is an example email:

Subject: Hi, John — Coffee in Chicago?

Hi, John — I’m a big fan of your work. I’ve learned a lot from you, and I’ve been able to incorporate so many of your tips into my career.

Can I buy you a cup of coffee next Tuesday? I know you’re busy, but I would love to share my story with you and also figure out a few ways that I can help you. I’ll come by you.

Thank You,
Robbie

Susie suggested that we meet because of (a particular reason) and thought it would be mutually beneficial for us to connect. I’m available later next week and would love to host you at my office as we have great coffee!

Be gracious. Don’t be offended when people don’t respond. If you don’t get a response don’t be pissed off and don’t react snarky. Track which ones have responded and which have not, and determine a cadence of follow-up for those who haven’t responded. The goal is simply to get a reply. You can gently nudge with a follow-up, but be careful. Wait at least a week, and don’t be annoying. Use common sense, but err on the side of being patient. Persistence is annoying — If they don’t respond after the 1st email, they’re probably not going to respond. Don’t email them 6 times/week asking if they saw your email. That’s only going to make them ignore you in the future. Email in a month with another request, and if they can they will help. Politely hit reply to your first email and say something like, “Sorry to chase. We all get busy on email and just wanted to be sure you saw the following.” It may take 3+ reminders. Persistence pays.

Be human and actively project warmth. Profusely thank people who make introductions for you. When your connection provides you a warm intro, you (the requestor) should respond promptly — within a couple hours. Let them know how it went — The only payback required is a thank you and a follow up. There’s no better feeling than knowing you helped someone.

✿ Blind in-person meetings (Meet people in real life — IRL)

Establishing connections via email is one thing, but actually getting together face to face takes the relationship to a different level.

A great deal of recruiting begins with a genuine connection with the management team, and so if you meet someone in person you will both be able to test that connection automatically.

The Paradox of Networking: The best networking never happens at networking events. The best networking environments don’t look like networking (e.g. Birthday parties, weddings). The people you want to network with avoid networking events. They have an abundance of options.

What ties all these paradoxes together is this: The stronger the signal, the less effective the signal can be. As a result, the beauty lies in the subtle signals and counter signals. The art is hidden in plain sight.

Tech people all spend a great deal of their time externally. The best place to meet people is an environment in which they can be who they are. Figure out where tech people in your city usually hang out online and offline, and hang out and approach them there. As mentioned above, try to become their friends first. Business second.

Not only would many of people you meet immensely be helpful to you in the immediate-term (for which you should be hugely grateful!) — but you run across many of them professionally, keep in touch with a decent amount, and may end up becoming good personal friends with a few.

Rules for meeting people IRL:

With pre-arranged appointments: Don’t be late. Seriously. Be five minutes early. To some people, there are few greater sins than disrespecting their time.

Do your basic research. Look up the person on LinkedIn, and Google a bit about their company and themselves.

Have a list of a few questions you want to ask. You can ask them the generic advice of “how they got to their current role”, but better to have specific questions about their background and company.

Even if it it’s not a formal interview assume all of these professional interactions are interviews. You never get a second chance to get a first impression. Again, you want people to want to help you.

The more that you can establish a genuine connection with someone, the more likely you both will be to help each other.

Goes without saying, but you shouldn’t be distracted or checking your phone during one of these such meetings.

Keep these meetings to 30 minutes. After 30 minutes has elapsed, tell the person you’re meeting with that you want to be conscious of their time and confirm they can continue chatting.

Don’t be shy about asking them how best to pursue a career like they have and if they can think of anyone who might be helpful in your search.

When the meeting concludes, thank them profusely, and ask how you can help them — even if you’re unsure that you can.

Write a gracious thank-you email that includes any follow-up items.

If they liked you, they might refer you internally and get you into a process.

✿ Tech Events and Meetups

In particular, I find writing to be much more powerful than going to conferences. Over time, I’ve found conferences and events to be less scalable than writing. They are fun, and it’s much easier to have a one on one conversation than it is to create a content. When you really think through how much time you spend getting to a conference, all the time between sessions, and when you speak how few people are actually in the audience listening. Contrast to any kind of digital platform where you can write a blurb and 1000s of people see your ideas.

One thing you’ll notice about the SF tech industry is that there are endless events and conferences. Whereas a secondary startup hub might have a major tech event once every month or two, SF has them every day. There’s office warmings, product launches, new AI meetups, hangouts at Dolores, big splashy conferences, hackathons, and so on. There are endless varieties.

Take advantage of networking meetups or events to get to know people. Attend industry specific conferences, startup events, demo days, mixers, etc. These offer opportunities to quickly grow the number of deep connections you have in a short amount of time simply by sitting down for coffee with new people.

Find out which events and conferences they’re attending, and get yourself a ticket. An easy way to find these events is to read Charlie O’Donnell’s weekly newsletter, search on Eventbrite or Meetup.com (a lot of events are free and only require registration!). Also, If you’re currently part of an accelerator programme or coworking space, keep an eye on the mentoring programme. Various members of venture teams often host workshops and mentoring sessions. Networking in Silicon Valley is very hard. There is no central place to meet people. It’s elusive. It’s all about the back-channel. You rely on founder friends and parties, which can be equally elusive, mostly to get access to investors and helpful people.

If you’re in NYC, you can have a never-ending selection of nightly tech events. Gary’s Guide is a good go-to resource for sourcing tech events. For people based in NYC, it’s the most complete weekly overview of the NYC tech ecosystem, period. Don’t let the retro formatting fool you.

The Google Sheet has other good sources for finding tech events.

How to get the most out of tech events:

Some people think that tech Meetups and events are a waste of time. Indeed, some even turn out to be so. I viewed each of them as pure option value. That is, there was no downside to going, and if I could make even one relevant connection, it would be totally worth it.

Here are some good general rules to follow:

Consider yourself in a business setting. Don’t get too drunk or behave in an otherwise inappropriate manner.

Seriously, it’s important. The tech world is very, VERY small. As Warren Buffett said: Your reputation takes 20 years to build and five minutes to destroy.

I suggest ‘focused’ industry MeetUps (FinTech, AI, VR, etc.) as opposed to generic tech or startup MeetUps.

If you’re not comfortable talking to innumerable random strangers for hours (I’m not), go in with a manageable goal. Talk to two new people.

A very easy ice breaker is “Have you been to XYZ event before?” or “How did you hear about XYZ event?” Yes, it feels ridiculously socially awkward at first, but such is life.

Cool Hack: at some point during the MeetUp, go up to and thank the organizers. First off, it’s good manners. Secondly, they are generally active members in the Tech community (They went through the trouble and effort of organizing a MeetUp for goodness sakes). They can likely help you.

These events generally have a panel of speakers. Often after the panel discussion concludes, the audience, in unison, makes a mad dash toward the speakers to ask them questions one on one. Then a hopelessly long line begins to form. I generally refused to stand around waiting in these lines waiting to schmooze with the speakers. Better to find them on LinkedIn or Twitter afterwards, and reference that you saw them speak but didn’t have a chance to connect.

In any social interaction at these events, don’t monopolize someone’s time. Similarly, be courteous if your time is being monopolized and you’d like to exit the conversation. You can always say “It would be great to continue this conversation some other time.”

Again — this will feel socially awkward. Get over it.

Don’t interject or blatantly interrupt people who are mid-conversation. It is understood that you are allowed to “saddle up” to an in-progress conversation. Wait for a natural break if you’re going to make a comment.

If possible, identify people ahead of time you’d like to talk to

I don’t make myself business cards, but find it effective to simply connect with people on LinkedIn soon after I’d met them.

I know what you’re thinking: All of this is too much work to put in, especially if there’s no guarantee your extra effort will result in a job.

But you’re looking at it the wrong way. Doing what everyone else does is very unlikely to result in a job.

Decide you will be different — and then work hard to actually be different. Then you will stand out. Then you’ll have a much better chance of landing the job you really want.

Best of luck!