before I joined Google in 2021, I was 17 years old, barely knew how to program and had no connections whatsoever in the tech industry.
but early on I learned the immense value of building a strong network, especially from scratch with complete strangers.
this also went hand in hand with learning that having a referral (at least in the case of the tech industry), greatly improves the chances of your application being considered, given it literally falls in a recruiters lap.
I’m now 21, and over the past 4 years I feel like I’ve built a pretty strong network, especially for someone who didn’t have any connections initially.
I’ve been very intentional with it because I chose to have quality over quantity. in the case of linkedin, I only have ~160 connections, in contrast to people who spam their way to 500+ without any idea of the person.
not only am I “connected” with some fascinating people, I’ve built genuine friendships with them.
so, in this short post I’ll be sharing some tips on how you could get your foot in the door.
if you’re young, ambitious and somewhat outgoing, then I hope this will be of some value to you. I certainly would’ve wanted a post like this a few years ago.
this isn’t some crazy voodoo advice to get your way, I’m just some guy who knows how to make connections with people from all walks of life.
in this post:
- find people similar to you
- be curious
- being young lets you off the hook
find people similar to you
my parents are Persian, and I’ve been made aware of how talented/vast we are when it comes to producing engineering talent.
so, naturally I pretty much only reached out to other Persians, since they’d be more willing to help out one of their own.
if you’re not from a thick culture, then honestly it doesn’t make a huge difference, just something you have less to connect on.
be curious
one mistake so many people make is sending some generic message like “hey, how’s it going? I graduated at X so I’m applying for Y, would you give me a referral?”. you’re probably thinking that this sounds so uninspired, but you’d be surprised with how many messages I’ve received with a similar tone.
remember, you do not know this person. show a reason why they should care for your career.
what I did was reach out to people who I knew had some interesting story or background.
that could be a website, their resume/linkedin experience, their current company. there are so many things you can touch up on in your msg that sparks a curious conversation.
remember that the other person probably receives dozens of messages asking for referrals from desperate candidates, so don’t send a generic msg further stating the obvious.
being young lets you off the hook
now, I’m not saying this for you to do dumb stuff and then say “it’s fine I’m young”, but I am also saying that being young lets you off the hook in many cases.
jokes aside in all honesty, if you’re young, and by young I mean in your 20s, you literally have nothing to lose reaching out to strangers. in fact, it’s the best chance for you to do it.
I’ve asked some silly questions to people, yet they find it quite endearing because of my age.
one thing I learned from a teammate of mine at Google was to reach out to people 30+. because when they reach some sort of senior level, they feel like it’s time for them to pay it forward to the next generation.
in general though, this is just a fraction of the things I learnt.