How To Land A Job Anywhere

The most powerful career opportunities in my life have come from cold emails.

It's a strange thing to admit in 2024. We live in an era of personal brands, social media influence, and AI-powered job matching. The conventional wisdom is that cold outreach is dead - replaced by warm introductions, online presence, and algorithmic matchmaking.

Yet I keep coming back to cold emails. Not because they're trendy or scalable, but because they've worked for me in ways that still surprise me.

During my first year of university, I needed an internship.

Like everyone else, I went through the motions - submitting applications on job boards, attending career fairs, trying to "network"... Nothing. Then I tried something that felt both obvious and terrifying at the time: I emailed the CEO of a major automotive company directly. A few exchanges later, I had the job.

You could dismiss this as luck. I probably would have, except this pattern kept repeating throughout my career. While in France, I landed a finance internship in New York through cold email. When I later wanted to pivot into advertising, another cold email got me a position at a global agency in Paris. When I needed work fast, one month and several cold emails later, I was employed at a startup.

Another example. While traveling in Southeast Asia after college, I became fascinated by the region's potential with global e-commerce. I ditched my plans to go to Australia, and instead spent a month in Vietnam, identified a leading company I wanted to join, and a few carefully crafted emails later, a couple of interviews landed, and I was in.

There's something beautifully simple about cold emailing. It strips away the complexity of modern job hunting and reduces it to its essence: one person reaching out to another with genuine interest and clear intent.

But I should be careful here. I'm not suggesting cold emails are a magic solution or that everyone should abandon other job-seeking methods. What I am saying is that in a world obsessed with scalable solutions and personal brands, there's still immense power in direct, thoughtful outreach.

The key word here is thoughtful. The cold emails that worked weren't generic templates or mass mailouts. They were carefully researched messages that demonstrated genuine interest in the company and role. When I reached out to the advertising agency, I didn't just list my qualifications - I shared my perspective on how influencer marketing was reshaping the industry.

Will every cold email get a response? Of course not. But that's not really the point. The point is that amidst all our sophisticated job-hunting tools and platforms, sometimes the simplest approach still works: one person reaching out to another with something meaningful to say.

No massive following needed. No fancy degree required. It's accessible to anyone willing to do the work of crafting a thoughtful message. Just clear thinking and genuine interest.