Your first point is definitely true. There are a lot of smaller nonprofits that could use 0.2 data scientists or 0.4 software engineers, but can’t hire them in fractional quantities without all of the additional hassles associated with contractors.
I have a project and a (short) list of organizations I would like to pitch. Originally the list was ‘a couple of organizations I have worked with before, maybe 25% one of them will say yes or refer me somewhere useful’, but I like your advice to be more proactive—cold-emailing people is intimidating but not actually that costly or intrusive.
(At least that is what I think “Spend a weekend putting together a solution to these problems, and send them to a couple of people at the company with an invitation to talk more” is suggesting.)
I have some stupid questions about this:
My instinct is to contact someone with the minimum seniority to implement my project—but that still means someone with hiring authority—job titles like Program Manager, Assistant Director, or Director. Does that sound right to you?
I’m also inclined to to prefer using an individual public email address if it exists. Usually it doesn’t. My guess would be that unsolicited LinkedIn messages will go to spam, but maybe I should send them anyway? Along those lines Twitter is semiprofessional these days but probably kind of sketchy and I’m not on it. Should I just prioritize people with public emails? The only other thing I can think of is organizations with ‘slush’ emails for general jobseeker inquiries, etc. Am I thinking about this wrong?
Thanks, that is good advice.
Your first point is definitely true. There are a lot of smaller nonprofits that could use 0.2 data scientists or 0.4 software engineers, but can’t hire them in fractional quantities without all of the additional hassles associated with contractors.
I have a project and a (short) list of organizations I would like to pitch. Originally the list was ‘a couple of organizations I have worked with before, maybe 25% one of them will say yes or refer me somewhere useful’, but I like your advice to be more proactive—cold-emailing people is intimidating but not actually that costly or intrusive.
(At least that is what I think “Spend a weekend putting together a solution to these problems, and send them to a couple of people at the company with an invitation to talk more” is suggesting.)
I have some stupid questions about this:
My instinct is to contact someone with the minimum seniority to implement my project—but that still means someone with hiring authority—job titles like Program Manager, Assistant Director, or Director. Does that sound right to you?
I’m also inclined to to prefer using an individual public email address if it exists. Usually it doesn’t. My guess would be that unsolicited LinkedIn messages will go to spam, but maybe I should send them anyway? Along those lines Twitter is semiprofessional these days but probably kind of sketchy and I’m not on it. Should I just prioritize people with public emails? The only other thing I can think of is organizations with ‘slush’ emails for general jobseeker inquiries, etc. Am I thinking about this wrong?
Thanks for your help!