An extraordinary professional moment happened to me in a very ordinary finance class. Instead of paying attention to what the teacher was saying, I read an article in HBR and emailed the author asking for advice about how I could find my passion.
They graciously responded with valuable advice—essentially, to try a lot of things!—and in doing so, also shifted my perspective. I learned a valuable lesson: it turns out I could meet people over email, and they would respond! (I would not suggest generically asking for advice, though. This mainly worked because I was a student, and the person I emailed happened to be generous.)
There’s a craft to finding people’s emails. Here are some tools and techniques:
- I usually use Norbert, which I found in my Lifehacker days.
- A lot of people have newsletters now, so I like to sign up and reply to their emails. (I got this gem from my friend Nik!)
- I have also correctly guessed people’s email addresses by looking at their social media handles and seeing if [social media handle]@gmail.com pops up with their profile picture.
Then, there’s actually writing the email itself, which is a much more sophisticated craft. My friend and former co-worker Carly wrote a really great guide to writing a good cold email, which I will be referring to often and wish I’d read sooner.
Emails in general feel increasingly important to me, mainly because it’s relatively direct communication—and it isn’t facilitated through a social media platform or subject to a platform’s rules. As long as you and another person have each other’s email addresses, you can keep in touch.