Leading up to the summer before my senior year of college I was searching through Google for my next travel destination when a pop-up ad directed me to a website about Mongolia, the land of nomadic culture and once the largest contiguous empire founded by Genghis Khan. After some reflecting, I decided maybe I could both work and do backpacking at the same time. But the problem was how? I knew no one in Mongolia.
I didn’t let that stop me – I was determined to experience the work culture of a developing nation built around the foundation of agriculture, livestock, and mining. After quick Googling, I compiled a list of consulting firms in Mongolia, which was limited to three of the “Big 4” and some local firms. Then, I spent another 3 hours putting together a list of decision-maker contacts ranging from MDs to Associates. My primary source was LinkedIn but because this was not a widely used social media tool in Mongolia, I went through hundreds of PDF documents and PowerPoint slides on the Internet just to find the work emails of the right people.
Next, I wrote a short email introducing myself as an undergraduate student who wants to learn more about the business and is looking for an internship over the summer. I then sent this email along with my resume to the 30 people on my list, with minor customized changes for each one. Some may argue you may appear too keen to attach your resume in the first email but I think this depends on the situation. As a student from the other side of the globe, I initially needed to highlight my past work experience and the key skills I could leverage over the summer to be taken more seriously and to have a more efficient conversation if it led to a call.
From the 30 emails, I got six informational chats and two ended up becoming strong leads. Eventually, I was able to get in touch with the Country Head of one of the firms and secure a summer consulting internship.
Note: Sometimes hiring managers purposely do not want interns because of the time commitment required to train them. This is especially true for offices with less structured processes and hierarchical systems compared to their US or European counterparts. If this is the case, convince the manager that you are willing to do remedial tasks as part of your internship (data collection, online research, translation, etc.). There are usually things that don’t take much skill and nobody wants to do but need to get done.
This goes back to my point that it depends on the situation whether you should attach your resume. With some quick research I discovered that Mongolian consulting firms would soon need to perform an asset quality review (AQR) on all Mongolian commercial banks in response to the IMF’s proposed $5.5B economic stabilization package. So, I highlighted my past internships at three different banks, along with a client engagement involving a bank while at a consulting firm, to show that I had a fundamental understanding of how banks operate and some experience performing stress testing. Additionally, a quick read through a UN report revealed mining as an important component of Mongolia’s national economy with many prospective projects involving Korean mining companies. So, I highlighted my fluency in Korean to show that I could help with any translations.
Ultimately, I successfully capitalized on the knowledge that I learned from the Internet in order to highlight my most relevant experience and skills, and went on to work in a country that I had never visited before. Despite not knowing anyone at the target companies, I made the most of cold emailing. This approach may seem speculative. However, depending on your willingness to put in the work, it can allow you, virtually regardless of your background, the opportunity to get in touch with anyone else in the professional world. Cold emailing enables you to build your professional network as large as you want and compete for the world’s most exclusive career opportunities.
I would not have had this internship opportunity if I didn’t learn to cold email. It’s that simple. The earlier you start, the better. In the next post, I will walk you through step-by-step on how to cold email successfully.
Jason Oh is a management consulting enthusiast with past experience in helping F500 financial services clients with product management, go-to-market and distribution channel strategy
Image: Pexels
🔴 Interested in consulting?