This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 30-year-old Hashim Mahmoud, a strategy and operations manager at Angi, an online home-services marketplace formerly known as Angie’s List. His identity and background have been verified. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
I found my current position after just a few months of job hunting in 2024, largely thanks to how I went about networking. I reached out to more than 1,200 people, spoke with about 150 of them, and got about 20 interviews before landing the position I have now at Angi. The job market may be more competitive today, but I think my experience still applies.
My strategy was to leverage my LinkedIn network. To stay organized, I started a spreadsheet of people that included former coworkers, secondary connections, people at companies I admired, and people in roles I wanted to better understand.
When I sent connection invites on LinkedIn, I always included a personalized note. I would say who I am and that I would love to connect to learn more about their background and company.
I kept it short and respectful. I wasn’t saying: Can you help me get a job? I was asking for 15 to 20 minutes to talk. Here’s an example:
Hi XX,I noticed you’re a Strategy Director at [Company name]. I’m seeking new opportunities and would love to discuss how my experience in strategy and operations might fit at [Company name]. I look forward to connecting!Best,Hashim
Some people would accept my invite, but not reply to my personalized note. When that happened, I would immediately send a follow-up thanking them for connecting with me, and then asking for 15 to 20 minutes of their time.
I did this because I had set up alerts on LinkedIn to be notified when anyone accepted one of my connect invitations. This meant they were likely active on the platform at that moment. Most would then quickly respond.
Those calls were essentially informational discussions. I would share a little bit more about myself, and then I approached them with curiosity. I would ask about their career paths, the skills that mattered in their field, and the culture of their teams.
I kept it very soft. Toward the end, I would ask if my background would be a good fit. If they said yes and there was any opening, they would typically ask for my résumé.
If they said no, I’d ask if it would be OK to stay in touch. I’d also ask if they could make introductions to people in their networks, and I would offer to provide them with a prewritten message they could basically copy and paste. For example:
Hi XX,I’d like to introduce you to Hashim, who is currently exploring new career opportunities. He has a strong background in strategy and operations and I thought it would be great for the two of you to connect. Hashim would like to learn more from your experience and I believe you could have some insightful exchanges.Hashim, meet XX, who is currently a Strategy Director for [XX] Company.I’ll let you both take it from here!Best regards,[Name of sender]
After every networking conversation, I sent each person a thank-you message. Always, no matter what, you send that thank-you note. I don’t care if you had a bad time talking to somebody. You thank them for taking the time to talk to you.
With networking, you can get a lot more information than what’s in a job description, such as how different teams operate within a particular company and the problems that they were trying to solve. You may be able to use that to your advantage.
During one job interview, I remember talking about how I planned a lot of team-building events at my previous job, such as a trip to a Lakers versus Golden State game. I brought that up because I knew from talking to a networking connection I’d made at the company that it wanted someone with a lot of energy.
All of those networking conversations also helped sharpen my interviewing skills, which made me more confident. You do tend to get asked the same questions over and over, so with each one, I got better at explaining my background.
Most of these conversations didn’t lead to a potential job opportunity right away. But some did bear fruit, and that’s what happened with Angi. A former colleague of mine had a friend who worked there, and he agreed to make an intro.
She agreed to talk, and told me about the team she leads, which was in my field of strategy and operations. I then shared a little bit more about my background and explained why I would be a good fit for her team. She said there weren’t any openings at the time, but she would like to stay in touch.
Fast forward a few months, and I reached out to my new connection at Angi just to check in. She said that they had a new role on her team that would be posted online the next day. I applied, listed her as a referral, and ultimately got the job. I now work for her.
