1. In your own words, what’s the single most important skill or insight you walked away with?
Networking works better when you start it before you need anything. I used to message people only when an application was about to open, and those messages came across as transactional. The better approach is to build a relationship early by asking specific questions about someone’s work, following up on what they suggested, and letting a referral come up naturally later.
2. What’s the one part of the event you found most valuable and would want us to keep for future sessions?
The part where he went through real outreach messages and explained why some got replies and others didn’t. Seeing how he rewrote a weak message made the advice concrete in a way general tips don’t. Future sessions should keep a live teardown like that, and could let students submit their own drafts ahead of time.
3. What recruiting challenge or frustration were you hoping this event would help you solve, and did it?
I’m recruiting for product management, and most APM hires seem to come through referrals I don’t have. I’m not from the Bay Area and didn’t come in with a network in tech, so my cold outreach has mostly gone unanswered. The event helped with how to write a first message and follow up without being pushy. It didn’t fully cover how to reach people at companies where I have no alumni connection, so a follow-up session on that would help.
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