Linkedin Networking Template

Found someone you want to reach out to on LinkedIn? It could be someone working at a company that you’d like to join or someone successful in an industry, I’ve provided a template below that you can use to reach out to your contact through the intro message. NOTE: You’re granted only a certain number of letters in the intro message when you send the invitation, so I like to (and have to) keep it short and to the point - below is a successful outreach (meaning that individual responded to me, we had a call, and I got an interview [this was for a non-technical role at Apple]) that I sent last year.

Hi [FIRST NAME],

I hope this note finds you well. A little bit of background on why I am reaching out to you - I'm a [CURRENT ROLE or YEAR IN SCHOOL] at [CURRENT COMPANY or SCHOOL] and interested in learning more about [CONTACT’S COMPANY and/or ROLE]. I came across your profile on LinkedIn, and was wondering if you would be open to a 30 min. conversation sometime next week. Thank you in advance for your time insight, and I look forward to learning more about your background and experience at [CURRENT COMPANY], [CONTACT’S FIRST NAME].

Thanks,

[FIRST AND LAST NAME]

Now this is fully up to you to customize - you can probably squeeze in a line or two about why you’re reaching out, what additional roles you’re interested in, or any additional background about yourself.

What’s important here is the commonality - Are they an alumni from your school? do you have connections in common (preferably ones who you are close to and have given you the green light to name drop them in the intro), or common interest/background/location? This will set you apart and turn that cold outreach a bit warmer.

In my case of that specific outreach, I didn’t get an offer from Apple.com, but I did go through the interview process and it was a great learning experience if I ever do decide to make another attempt for a position there!