Author
Marcus Williams
Software Engineer, recent grad
Marcus graduated in 2023 and landed his role at Stripe through department alumni networking. He mentors current students on job search strategy, cold emailing, and navigating tech recruiting as a first-generation college graduate.
Articles by Marcus Williams
3 postsCareer Navigation
The Alumni Referral Advantage: How Department Connections Land Jobs
Why a referral from a department alumnus is 3x more likely to get you an interview than a cold application, plus the specific strategy I used to get referred into Stripe.
Alumni Outreach
How to Reach Out to an Alumnus for Career Advice: Templates That Work
After sending 150+ cold emails to department alumni as a first-gen student, here are the exact templates and strategies that got me a 28% response rate and a referral into Stripe.
Alumni Outreach
Cold Email Templates That Actually Get Responses from Department Alumni
After sending 150+ cold emails to department alumni, here are the exact templates and strategies that got me a 28% response rate — and the mistakes that got me ignored.