Sometimes you have to sneak onto another university’s campus to attend their career fair
While I will always have strong affection towards my 4 years at the University of California, Irvine, one of the downsides of attending school in a state with the likes of UCLA/Berkeley/Stanford was the inevitable social class hierarchy when it came to job opportunities. And although Irvine’s top program (accounting) wined and dined the likes of the Big 4 every quarter of the school year, there were many of us non-accounting students who did not benefit from the resources that the university funneled into the accounting program. And because of that, there was a consistent force in every career fair or recruiting session we went into that politely reminded us: “You’re not UCLA or USC.” Sometimes it was a sneerful glance but most of the time, it was passive aggressive reminders that recruiters were here for our engineers and not the business students. Usually those reminders came in the form of the time they allotted for engineers over business students or even the budget they allocated to the recruiting sessions. However, the worst culprit of the social class hierarchy of job hunting was and always will be the ludicrous phrase that appeared on job descriptions from the top companies: “graduate of top university”.
Now granted, things have changed since my time at university, but the social class structure that has been created in the recruiting world continues to exist because of the oligopoly that controls college rankings industry. Every year, bright-eyed bushy-tailed high school seniors begin each school year with high ambitions as they cross examine the rankings of their dream schools across US News, Times Higher Education, and Princeton Review (to name a few). Ever year, millions of students around the world check these 3 sites in particular as they plan out the rest of their lives. With this much power, their influence has carried into the recruiting ecosystem, seeping into conversations between peers, classmates, and even recruiter-interviewee.
But while the challenges that this oligopoly presents to college students who do not end up attending “brand name” schools, there are ways for you to game the system. Through my time and experience at UC Irvine, I built a playbook of tricks to fight my way into contention for opportunities at Microsoft and Adobe, 2 companies in particular that did not actively recruit business students from Irvine at all.
- Cold email the hell out of people that you admire — Now, you probably heard a variation of this advice from LinkedIn advocates. Request informational interviews through LinkedIn with anyone you find interesting. But here is the thing, the common joke in the working world is that the only time you see someone on LinkedIn is when they are looking for a new job. At the end of the day, cold emails continue to be the tried and true method of reaching anyone you want. But here is where you get smart about who you’re cold emailing. Lets assume that you wanted to reach Satya Nadella of Microsoft. Instead of plugging in snadella@microsoft.com, satya@microsoft.com, and satya.nadella@microsoft.com into 3 separate emails, add all 3 of these emails into the BCC field of 1 email. That way, you don’t look desperate and your workload gets cut in half.
2. Find ways to network with the “Super Connectors” — Every community has super networkers. No matter where you are located in the world, there are people in your local community who are super connectors. Not sure what to look for? Easy, find people who meet any of the following qualifications:
- They are heavily involved in the local startup scene as either an investor or advisor
- Their line of work requires them to travel & meet other people frequently
- When they enter a room, they command the attention of others
And while what I described might resemble that of a politician, the one thing that separates a super connector from a politician is the warmth and effort he or she puts into their relationships.
3. People find startups sexy. Get involved with their community — This trend was definitely quite active during my time at UC Irvine. No matter where you looked in Southern California, everyone was talking about a side project or tech startup ideas/concepts they wanted to test. But the common thread that existed in this community was the desire to emulate Silicon Valley. And because of that, there were members of our startup community who tried to build bridges with the startup community in Northern California. So make sure you pay attention to those types of efforts.
4. Sneak onto competing college campuses — Now this one sounds pretty obvious but it is actually something not a lot of people think about. If you attend a non “brand name” school, this should be at the top of your list of things to do the moment you become a junior. When I was a junior in college, one of the smartest things I did back then was look up the companies I wanted to work at on USC’s career fair schedule and drove my car up the 405 during non-rush hour traffic. By sneaking onto college campuses, you’re showing these companies multiple things: ambition, preparation, and hard work. After that, it’s all about the pitch.
