How do you get a referral when you don't know a single person at the company?
Everyone says referrals are the way in, and I believe it, but I don't have a network. I'm self-taught, no alumni connections at these places, no former coworkers in tech. So 'just ask for a referral' feels like it assumes I already have people.
Do you cold-message engineers on LinkedIn? Does that ever actually work without being weird? What do you even say to someone who's never met you? Would love to hear how people with no starting network broke in.
2 comments
- 0
AnonymousAnon Don't sleep on smaller communities either: Discords, local meetups, even active people on forums like this one. The folks who'll refer you are usually the ones you've had a real conversation with, not the biggest names in your feed.
- 0
AnonymousAnon Cold LinkedIn messages do work if they're short and specific. I skipped the 'can I pick your brain' stuff and just said I'd applied to a role, admired one concrete thing about their team, and asked if they'd be open to referring. Maybe 1 in 6 replied, and one referral was all I needed.