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
6 postsAlumni Outreach
How to Find a Mentor in Your Academic Department: A Step by Step Approach
74% of alumni want to mentor students, but only 59% of institutions have a formal program. Here is exactly how to find and approach a department alumni mentor on your own.
Career Navigation
Networking as a First-Generation College Student: Where to Start With Your Department
First-gen students are systematically excluded from professional networks. Here is why department alumni networks close that gap, with specific tactics that do not require family connections.
Alumni Outreach
How to Ask a Department Alum for an Informational Interview
A step-by-step guide to requesting informational interviews with department alumni. Includes templates, timing data, and the exact framing that got me from a 9% response rate to 40%.
Career 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.