Internships: Zero to Many (Networking & Informational Interviews)

This Series – Internships: Zero to Many

Dedicated to the rebels for whom on-campus recruiting isn’t an answer.

I’m an international student and a start-up enthusiast. I landed all my college internships by reaching out to people I didn’t know. I not only got internships, but built my own “network” in the process, learnt a lot about the industry I was interested in, had good conversations with industry veterans, and got enthusiastic and real career advice for free! Campus recruiting folks are missing out!

This series will share my reflections on summers, developing your interests, how to informational interview and network, landing an interview, the interview, evaluating offers, and making the most of your internship.

Posts in this series

Part 1: My Summers

Part 2 (This):  Networking & Informational Interviews

Part 3 (Coming soon): The Resume & The Interview

Part 4: (Coming soon): Making The Most of Your Internship

About me

I’m a bioengineering student, but my mindset and experiences have largely been in the electrical engineering and physics realm. While this series originates from my personal experiences, I believe certain posts (particularly part 2 and 4) will be useful for non-engineering students as well. Here is a great blog for business analyst and consulting roles.

I aspire to be an entrepreneur in the health tech space and have used my summers to work at health tech companies of different sizes and get a glimpse at the various stages of company growth.

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Networking & Informational Interviews

I start off this post by motivating why one should network. I then share the general idea of the informational interview, including a “game plan”, who to reach out to, and where to reach them. I then have a section on “How to Linkedin” followed by a “How to Cold Email” in which I provide sample messages to reach out. That is followed by a section on how to have enjoyable conversations – networking doesn’t have to be all business! I close of by sharing methods I use to keep my networking and internship applications organized.

P.S. I will use networking and informational interview interchangeably in this post. I wanted to put both terms out there so you have keywords for further research on Google!

Motivation for Networking

Networking gets its bad rep from college career fairs.

My artistic rendition of a college career fair.

Networking should be fun. After all, you are talking to people who are doing what you want to do in the future – your dream job (i.e. your life)!

Without on-campus recruiting, online applications seem like black holes. Throw your resume at them, and for the most part, nothing happens!

Informational interviews can help you get past the anonymity of online application and enjoy networking again! Informational interviews can take you from not knowing anyone at a company to having an employee recommend your resume for a position – an employee referral! An employee referral will give your application a serious leg up. Informational interviews can take you from Zero to Many.

Network when you least need to. It’s more enjoyable when you network to meet people and not just to get an internship out of them. The focus should be on learning from them and building a small relationship. Professionals enjoy seeing genuine eagerness and enthusiasm in a college student.

The Informational Interview

The idea of the informational interview is to reach out to someone saying you want to learn something from them (more about their industry, working at their company, etc.) and ask for 15-20 mins of their time on the phone.

The game plan

1. Before the call, ask yourself – what do you hope to learn and gain from this encounter?

2. On the phone, you briefly share the career plan you currently have in mind and what you have been doing to work towards it. Ask for feedback on your plan.

3. You ask how they got to doing what they do and some more specific questions on their job role, day to day, etc (depending on what you want to know). Don’t be afraid of asking “boring” questions as long as you are genuinely curious to learn.

4. Towards the end of the call you can ask them about their company’s internship program and whether given your career plan you mentioned earlier, interning at their company could be a valuable experience.

5. You maybe ask if you could send them your resume afterwards for some feedback.

6. If the company has internships posted online, mention you are planning to apply for X particular role and ask whether they would be willing to send in your resume.

7. You end of by asking who else you can speak to to learn more – note down those names. Even better if they offer to make an introduction. Other people you can speak to could include another person in the same role as them, but with a background in Z (be specific to justify why you want to talk to another person in the same role as them), or someone in a completely different role you want to learn more about.

8. Thank them for their time.

9. After the call, send a follow-up note thanking them for their time again, highlight what you learnt from the call (don’t make this generic, be sincere). Attach your resume for feedback or for them to pass on (depending on the discussion during the call). And a “looking forward to the introduction” if they said they would make one – as a gentle reminder.

Who to reach out to for informational interviews

To keep your efforts targeted, have in mind what roles you are interested in (read this on competitive advantage of focus). For the first few informational interviews with a particular company, understand the organization of the company. This could even be done by speaking with an intern who has worked there before. An intern might be an easier first conversation to have and when you get around to speaking with the full time employees, you already have information on the company structure! Based on your understanding of the company structure, focus your informational interviews on people in the teams of your interest.

Where to reach out for informational interviews

LinkedIn is a great avenue to reach out for informational interviews. If reaching out to alumni from your college, a response rate of >30% is reasonable. If contacting someone who has no significant connection to you, a response rate of ~10% is more reasonable. Don’t be discouraged by a lack of response; folks can be busy with work, life, family, etc.

Facebook is a good avenue to reach out to interns still in college or professionals who graduated very recently (<3 years).

Cold emailing is also an option.

Your profs can also make introductions to their industry friends – share your career plans with your profs!

Lastly, in-person meet-ups are great too. You might be able to find something on meetup.com. TMCx in Houston is amazing for health tech folks.

How To  LinkedIn

“The art of reaching out.” ~ It sounded fancy, I just wanted to write that.

You will have the highest response rate by reaching out to people you already have some relation with (e.g. your college alumni). LinkedIn has a great tool to find alumni in your industry:

Finding college alumni on LinkedIn. Enter “Rice University” or your college name in search bar. Then type company name e.g. “Medtronic” in lower search bar.

If you are interested in a particular company, but none of your college alumni show up in the previous search, you can search the company on LinkedIn and get a list of all the employees there. Reaching out to 5-8 will generally get you a response.

Enter company name in the top search bar and its LinkedIn profile will show up in the search bar drop down.

Sending a note to someone on LinkedIn for FREE

Click on the name of the person you are interested in. You will be brought to their profile. Click “connect” and then “add note” (this feature only works on desktop version). You can add a short note to your connection request. Below are some samples!

Asking for an informational interview on LinkedIn:

“Hello (Person Name), I’m a bioengineering student at Rice University, and I’m interested to learn more about RnD in the medtech industry. Could we please schedule a short 15-20 mins call for me to learn more from your years of experience in the industry? Thank you & looking forward!”

Informational interviews turning into more informational interviews:

“Hey (Person Name), I’m a sophomore BIOE at Rice (yay PBL!). I’m interested in medtech and am trying to learn about the industry. I just spoke to your BIOE classmate, (name of person who referred me to you), working at Boston Scientific, and he brought up your name! It would be great to have a short 15 mins call with you to learn more.”

Straight up asking for an opportunity:

Do this only if you have had plenty of informational interviews and are familiar with the industry or company.

“Hi (Person Name), I’m an undergraduate engineering student at Rice University passionate about health tech and entrepreneurship. I’m looking for summer internship opportunities in clinical or electrical engineering. I would like to share my resume with you for any opportunities at (Company Name). Thanks!”

Note: If the company has opportunities relevant to you on their website – do your research and be specific about it. Small company often won’t have internship positions posted, but might be happy to take interns!

Don’t be afraid to follow-up

The LinkedIn user interface is such that it’s easy to forget to respond to someone’s connection request note after accepting the connection request. So if someone accepts your connection but does not respond to the note, you should follow-up on your initial note. Also in general, don’t be afraid to follow-up!

How To Cold Email

I’ve never used cold emails to ask for informational interviews. I’ve just used them as straight up internship applications to small companies. However, you can use it to ask for informational interviews – not everyone has LinkedIn.

The message for the email is similar to the LinkedIn message. Except your LinkedIn profile is not available for a quick view. Instead, you can attach your resume. Folks are also less used to receiving random networking emails, so add a bit on your career plans as well as your relevant experiences thus far – lends some credibility.

Sample email as internship application, shorter style:

This was sent to an info@comanyname.com email of a small company that had no internship opportunities posted online. This email could be improved by including specifics on what about this company in particular made me reach out.

“Dear (Company name), I am an undergraduate bioengineering student interested in medtech and entrepreneurship. If available, I would love to learn more about any potential summer internship opportunities at (Company name). With my background in bioengineering, startup companies, and electronics design, I believe I would be able to make a meaningful contribution to the company while also learning a great amount both on the business and technology sides of being in medtech at a world-class company. Could I speak to you more about the possibility of an internship position at a time convenient for you and your team? I have attached a copy of my resume. I would be happy to share more about my work and research experience to date. Thank you for your time, Nishant 713-xxx-xxxx”

Sample email as internship application, longer style:

This was sent to a small company that had no internship opportunities posted online. I sent it through an inquiry box on their website and couldn’t attach my resume. Instead, I included two short paragraphs on my past project and internship experiences.

Note how I started off by explaining where my interest in health tech came from. Some folks love this “why”. Especially start-up folks! I mentioned how I came across the company “at the TMCx medical device start-up demo day” – this shows I’m interested enough in medical devices and start-ups to attend an event about it!

I used this type of email freshman and sophomore  year – it could use some improvements! For starters, the ask is buried in the email, as compared to the previous example where it was highlighted in the second sentence.

“Hello (CEO Name), I believe in the impact of health technologies in improving human welfare. I work well in fast-paced teams, leveraging on a breadth of technical knowledge and creativity. As a bioengineer, I not only have experience in electrical and mechanical design, but also an understanding of biosensors and physiology. I take additional upper level electrical engineering classes and projects every semester to supplement my education as a bioengineer. I intend to apply my skills as a bioengineer and electrical engineer as an entrepreneur in the health tech industry. I’ve started work in the health tech industry with OxyCal, an engineering design project at Rice University. We are developing a gaseous oxygen sensor for use in low-resource medical settings. Interning as an electrical engineer at a wearable health tech startup, Shade, in New York City, affirmed my interest in the health tech field and grew my experience in PCB design, user experience, debugging, and manufacturing. I first came across (Company name) at the TMCx medical device-start up demo day towards the end of last year. I am inspired by the potential of (Company name’s) product in improving health monitoring with a (what their product does), and I would love to be a part of it. Is there an opening at (Company name) for the summer of 2017? I believe I will be able to contribute to the (Company name) team as an electrical engineer or bioengineer intern with my experience in PCB design, health technology, and user testing. The experience will mold me well and further inspire me to pursue a career as an entrepreneur in the health technology industry. I have attached my resume for your reference. Thank you, Nishant Verma Rice University”

Short vs. long emails

It’s easy to assume that your email will be read with patience. This isn’t always the case. Be succinct where you can! However, not at the expense of delivering your message.

A longer email (3-4 short paragraphs MAX) can be useful when you want to convey something special about how you found the company. A longer email is also justified if your resume doesn’t seem relevant to the industry or position on a quick glance and you want to explain yourself. In my case, some medical device companies still don’t understand what to do with the bioengineering major, so I sometimes use 1-2 sentences to express how the bioengineering major gives me breath but that I am focussed on electronics.

Either way, make your message and your ask clear – use the email subject to help with the ask as well.

Guessing email addresses

When reaching out to a small company, send an email directly to the CEO in addition to the others you send out. CEO emails can be found on start-up accelerator websites (e.g. TMCx company profiles). At the least, the companies info@companyname.com will be listed on their website. Then you just have to guess the CEO’s ID! Hint: It’s usually just first name or first name “.” last name. Worst case, you get it wrong and the email bounces back.

How To Have Enjoyable Conversations

Informational interview and networking conversations should be enjoyable. After all, you are talking to people who are doing what you want to do in the future – your dream job (i.e. your life)!

However, not all of them will be! Some will be awkward; some will feel disengaged. It’s okay! Here are some tips that could results in more positive outcomes.

Go in with a plan

Check out “The Game Plan” outlined above. Before the call or meeting, ask yourself – what do you hope to learn and gain from this encounter?

Try some “small talk”

Before launching full speed into the real talk, find something to bond over. If talking with a college alumni, maybe give an update about something interesting happening on campus. Mention a well-loved tradition coming up (BEEER BIKEEE!!!). Maybe mention the name of a professor whose class you are in that you think they might have had too (especially if in the same major). Talk about a great professor who just left (especially if in the same major). Maybe talk about the weather in Houston.

Show your enthusiasm

You need to put in enthusiasm and energy in on your side – give them something to work with! Talking to strangers can be be tiring, but a positive and enthusiastic mindset can help make it enjoyable!

Be Organized In Your Efforts

As you network and apply for internships through emails and online applications, be organized in your efforts. You will likely start informational interviews as early as Aug-Oct but might land an offer only in Mar-Apr. The brain forgets. Here are some screenshots of Excel sheet I used to keep track:

Junior summer application tracking

Sophomore summer application tracking

Keeping track of informational interviews (sophomore summer).

The Nice Ending

For a college student, informational interviews and networking is a great way to learn about various industries, companies of different sizes, and different roles. This can help you figure out what you do in your life. It can even get you an internship.

Think about what you want in life – money, work-life synergy, passion-driven work. Then speak to people from various industries and see how their experiences match up to your goals. This takes time and effort, but it’s worth it! “Find a job you love and you won’t have to work a day in your life” ~ Some famous dude.