How to do cold outreach as a student

Chapter 1

Find the right person

Don't start with "who's hiring?". Start with "who has done what I want to do, and might remember being me?". One well-chosen person beats fifty random ones.

Who to pick

• Alumni of your college or school. The easiest yes. On LinkedIn, open your college's page and use the Alumni tab to filter by company and role.
• Someone two to five years ahead of you. They remember your stage and can tell you what actually worked.
• People who publish. Authors of reports, articles, podcasts and talks give you a real reason to write.
• Senior people, for a specific question. A partner or founder won't have time for general advice, but may answer one good question about their work.

Don't only go after the most famous names. For each firm, try one junior person, one mid-level person and one senior person, with a different ask for each.

Do this now: write down 10 names at 3 firms you care about. Aim for a few good emails a day rather than a big batch.

Chapter 2

Find their email

Most work emails can be found in a few minutes for free. Go through these steps in order, and stop as soon as you have one.

Step 1: Check where they've published it

• Their LinkedIn page: open Contact info, because some people list an email there.
• Their personal website, blog, newsletter or portfolio.
• The end of a report, research paper or article they wrote: authors often give a contact address.
• The company's team, press or contact page, and conference speaker bios.

An address they've published themselves is the best kind: it works, and they expect to be contacted there.

Step 2: Work out the company's pattern

Companies usually use one format for everyone, so one real address reveals the rest. Most use one of these:

• first.last@company.com
• firstlast@company.com
• first@company.com
• flast@company.com
• first_last@company.com

To find the pattern, search Google for "@company.com" with the company's real domain, and look at press releases, annual reports and contact pages. Use the domain from their own website, because big firms can have a different one for each country.

Step 3: Use a finder tool

Apollo, Hunter and RocketReach look up work emails, and all have offered free plans with limited credits. Plans change, so check what's free today. Two tips:

• Credits run out fast, so do steps 1 and 2 first, and save credits for the people who matter most.
• These tools are often right, not always. People change jobs, so check the person still works there.

Step 4: Check the address before you send

• Run it through a free email verifier. Hunter has one, and there are others.
• Some company servers accept everything, so a verifier can only say "maybe". If you worked out the pattern from a real address, it's usually worth sending.
• If you get a bounce ("Address not found"), try the next pattern. Don't keep guessing many addresses at one company: lots of bounces can hurt how your email gets delivered.

Step 5: No email? Use another door

• Send a LinkedIn connection note. Keep it short, with one specific point and one small ask.
• Ask someone you both know for an introduction. A warm intro beats any cold email.
• Find a colleague at the same firm whose email you can find, and ask them who to talk to.

Stay on the right side of the line

• Use work or published addresses. Don't hunt down personal emails or phone numbers.
• Never buy email lists, and don't run bots or scrapers on LinkedIn: it's against LinkedIn's rules and can get your account restricted.
• If someone says no or asks you to stop, stop.

One more check: make sure your own email reaches people. Some college email domains get rejected or go to spam. Send a test to a Gmail address first. If it bounces or lands in spam, use your personal Gmail.

Do this now: pick your first 3 people and find their emails using steps 1 to 4.

Chapter 3

Research them in 10 minutes

You're looking for one real thing to mention, which we call a hook. In the founder's own year of outreach, emails with a specific hook got replies 33% of the time (7 of 21), against 5% (1 of 21) without one. That's one person's emails, not a study, but it's the biggest difference we've seen.

Where to look

• LinkedIn: their career path, recent posts and comments. Scroll the whole profile.
• Their work: articles, reports, interviews, podcasts and YouTube talks. Search their name plus the firm.
• Their firm: a recent deal, launch or report they worked on.

Hooks to try, best first

• A real connection: same college, hometown, club or a mutual contact.
• Their published work: one idea from it, and what it made you think about.
• Their career path: a specific move you want to understand, such as from consulting to a startup.
• Company news they were part of.

"I really admire your work" isn't a hook. If the sentence could go to anyone, cut it. And never claim a connection that isn't true: people check.

Do this now: for each person, write one sentence that starts "I noticed that you…" and could only be about them.

Chapter 4

Write the email

Busy people decide in seconds. Keep it under 200 words, in three short paragraphs: who you are, why them, and one small ask.

The subject line

Keep it short and specific. Try one of these patterns:

• [Your college] student interested in [their field]
• A question on [their report or talk]
• [Shared connection] – [your interest]
• Referred by [name] – [your interest]

An example

This example is made up. Yours should use real facts about the person and you.

What to avoid

• Asking for a job or internship in the first email. Ask for their advice first.
• A long introduction about yourself. Your resume can do that.
• "To whom it may concern", "Respected Sir/Ma'am", or anything that looks copied.
• Pasting from AI without editing. People can tell. Check every fact and make it sound like you.
• Spelling their name or firm wrong. It can end the conversation.

Attach your resume as a PDF, send at a sensible time, and write to one person at a time.

Do this now: write your first email, read it out loud, and cut anything you wouldn't say to their face.

Chapter 5

Follow up

Silence usually means busy, not no. In the founder's outreach, 3 of 9 replies came after a follow-up. Without those emails, they'd never have happened.

A simple schedule

• After about 7 days: a short, polite reminder. Under 100 words, in the same email thread.
• After another 7 days: add something new, and give them an easy way out.
• After another 7 days: one final, respectful note. Then stop.

What to write

• Skip "just checking in" and "bumping this up". Add a reason to reply, such as something new you read.
• Make it easy: "Even a one-line reply would really help."
• Thank them for their time, whatever happens.

When they reply

• Answer the same day if you can, and offer two or three times for a call.
• Prepare 3–4 real questions, and keep to the time you asked for.
• Send a thank-you afterwards, and tell them later if their advice helped.

Do this now: put a reminder in your calendar for 7 days after every email you send.