Job Search Lesson 8 – using LinkedIn to find contacts to interview

LinkedIn is an excellent tool for identifying people to have an informational interview with. I know that when I was searching for contacts, I used the Advanced People Search tool extensively.

I began by searching for contacts in my network with the specific job title (including any derivatives) that I was interested in. For example, when I wanted to work in Brand Management, I searched for “Brand Manager” OR “Brand Management” OR “Marketing Manager”. Note: using the quotation marks around words returns that exact phrase. Using the OR operator, returns results with any of the items you listed (as opposed to ALL of the items you listed).

Obviously targeting my 1^st-level connections (as described in a previous post), was a great starting point for organizing informational interviews. I next targeted my 2^nd-level connections for interviews by asking my 1^st-level connections if they would be happy to introduce me.

Here’s an example email I wrote:

Email subject
Requesting introduction/s

Email body

Hi James,

How’re things?

I may not have told you, but I’m considering making a career change into marketing within the apparel industry.

I’ve been doing some research on LinkedIn and I see that you’re connected to Peter Thompson, Marketing Manager at Nike. Do you happen to know him well enough to introduce me?

I'd love to have a coffee or phone conversation with him to learn more about marketing at Nike and the industry more broadly.

Obviously if you know anyone else who works in marketing within the apparel industry, I’d love to chat with them also.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

John