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Reaching Out

Cold Outreach

How to find any email address

The first step in reaching out to someone is finding their email address. It is shockingly easy to find the email address of pretty much anyone who works in politics. Try these methods (in the following order) until one sticks:

Google them! You will often find a link to a bio page on their organization’s website with a public email address.

If that doesn’t work, try creating a free account with

hunter.io⁠

. They’ve figured out that pretty much every organization has the same email format for all their employees: for instance, if Michael’s email is

michael@progressivepipeline.org⁠

, Danny’s email is probably going to be

Danny@progressivepipeline.org⁠

. Pop the website of their employer into the Hunter.io search bar, and it’ll spit back a pattern.

If you don’t have any luck with hunter.io (or if the person you’re trying to reach is currently between jobs or doesn’t have an organizational email), try rocketreach.co. Also free, but you’re limited to 5 lookups per month, so use them carefully! Just pop in their name (or, better, a link to their LinkedIn profile) and it’ll usually spit an email address out.

In case that doesn’t work, I’ve found that people are a lot more willing to put their emails on PDFs than they are on websites. Occasionally, googling someone’s full name in quotation marks plus “filetype:pdf” will spit something out!

Anatomy of a cold email

Right now, you have a huge networking advantage that won’t last forever: old people really want to help young people! If you send a thoughtful email to someone who you don’t know, but who’s doing interesting work, and ask if they’d like to connect, your chances of success are really high.

Writing a good cold email is a skill that you’ll use forever, but it’s especially important at the start of your career, when you most need to build your network.

Here’s the rundown:

Subject Line

Keep it short, professional, and not too formal. Give them a sense of who you are and what you’re asking for.

Bad

- help? (or anything all lowercase)

- I am looking for a job in progressive politics and would love your advice (much too long!)

- MEETING REQUEST (weird!)

- (No Subject) (you need one!!)

Good:

- Coffee next week?

- Advice for a student?

- Anything else that’s crisp, clear, and professional

Salutation

I generally think “Dear” is better than “Hi” for folks you haven’t met before, especially if they’re older. Never start an email with “Hey” unless you know them well. Spell their name right!

Opening

It never hurts to start with something nice. “I hope this finds you well!” or “I hope you’re staying safe and healthy!” can help set the tone of the email as two real human beings connecting with each other, not just job-seeking robots.

Then cut to the chase: tell them who you are, how you know about them, and why you want to talk to them. Do this immediately, and don’t beat around the bush.

Bad:

I’m a global citizen and someone, at least in my opinion, who is deeply engaged in the world and progressive politics; I’m both an organizer and an activist at heart. I came to this work when my grandmother told me about the time she met Eugene Debs and -- damn! -- I was hooked. It’s my passion and my calling, and I’d love to speak with you about it because I want to work in politics one day. Can we chat next week?

Yikes! Both TMI and really no information. They don’t need your life story, they just need a little bit of context. And you could have sent this email to anyone. Why do you want to talk to them in particular?

Good:

My name is Valerie, and I’m a junior at the University of North Carolina. I saw that you’re leading analytics at the SEIU, which I’ve admired ever since you all organized my mom’s workplace a decade ago! I’m interested in working in labor, and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about how you got started.

Ask

The most important thing is to make an ask! Be clear and concise. The person should understand exactly what you are asking of them. Being vague about what you want doesn’t somehow make it more polite; it only confuses them. Be direct and polite in asking for what you want; it’s doing the other side a favor. If you’re asking for a time to meet or talk, it’s always polite to offer a few time windows that work for you to minimize the back-and-forth in case they are busy and don’t have much availability to meet. Make sure to specify the timezone you’re talking about, especially during COVID times when many people aren’t where they normally would be.

Bad:

It would be such a joy and an honor to learn from you and hear your story. I’m sure you have a lot of wisdom to share, and I can’t wait to engage with you and blossom what I imagine will be a deep and fulfilling relationship.

You didn’t make an ask! They’re left guessing as to what you actually want. Be warm and polite, but also treat them like a normal human being.

Good:

Would you have a few minutes to connect next week? I’m free Monday 3-6pm EST, Tuesday 10am - 2pm EST, or Friday 9am - 12pm EST.

Closing

End with something like thanks, warmly, or best and your first name. Keep your email signature short and professional. It doesn’t need to be your whole story.

Pulling it together

That’s it! All together:

Subject: Connecting next week?

Dear Joanna,

Hoping this finds you well!

My name is Valerie, and I’m a junior at the University of North Carolina. I saw that you’re leading analytics at the SEIU, which I’ve admired ever since you all organized my mom’s workplace a decade ago! I’m interested in working in labor, and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about how you got started.

Would you have a few minutes to connect next week? I’m free Monday 3-6pm EST, Tuesday 10am - 2pm EST, or Friday 9am - 12pm EST.

Thanks,

Michael

There’s no need to copy my template exactly, but this broad framework should get you pretty far.

Once You Reach Out

If they don’t respond, it’s probably not because you offended them or did anything wrong. People SUCK at email, especially not super urgent ones. It’s okay to send a polite follow up (e.g. “Hi Jim -- just wanted to make sure this didn’t get lost in your inbox! Would you have a few minutes to connect in the coming weeks?”) but wait at least a week to do so (probably two), and don’t send more than one.

If they say they don’t have time to connect, you should still respond warmly, and thank them for taking the time to write you back. Again, politics is a small world. If you meet them (or one of their friends) in a year or two, you want them to remember you as someone who responded graciously even when you got turned down.

If they want to connect, that is awesome news! You did it. Respond ASAP to coordinate a time (try to be as prompt and communicative as possible). Unless they are working with an admin assistant to schedule the meeting, you should send over a calendar invite with a Zoom link. If they don’t specify a length of time for the meeting, I’d do 30 minutes.

Cold Outreach

How to find any email address

Anatomy of a cold email

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