Hello! I would love to know what kinds of templates (or resources) people use to contact companies you're interested. in. Like a lot of us I'm job searching in a toxic dead-end company, and feel like job ads are not the path forward especialy if so many jobs are unadvertised. At the same time, in person network has not picked. up again in my field (design and tech). I know part of all this job search is networking, and would love to hear success stories of when you've contacted a recruiter or employee (say someone who worked at the same company as. you, alumni etc.) and your pro-activenesss pays off in terms of at least getting you to the interview stage.

I've started passively doing this occasionally but would love to be more successful at it other than it sounding like a cold calling pitch which I think most of us are weary of.I try to both convey 'this is me, this is the value I bring, these are challenges I'm interested in - oh look, they're also your challenges, dream company, and here are some thoughts...' but honestly, it doesn't feel authentic. I would like people to walk away saying 'she sounds great' not 'she sounds desperate' and would love any ideas.