You need something from a colleague, but haven’t received a response yet. If you have the time, I will come to you wherever you are, even if it is for 15 minutes.Well, here we are again. I'm graduating in May and I'd be so grateful if I could ask you a few questions about your career path and how you got to where you are today. There aren't many people who have had such unique design-centric experiences at not only established companies, but also high growth tech companies and startups! I came across your profile on LinkedIn when researching RISD alumni in design and noticed that you've held some extremely interesting roles at T-Mobile, Facebook and Resume Worded. My name is Ashley Wilson and I'm currently a final-year student at the Rhode Island School of Design, majoring in Architecture. If you are too busy to do this, I totally understand, and if it'd be easier, I'd absolutely be open to doing a phone/Skype call or just continue the conversation over email. I just wanted to follow up with you about grabbing coffee sometime this week. Consider reducing what you're asking of them for example, if you asked a few questions in your initial email, maybe restrict yourself to one important question in your follow-up. If the reason you haven't received a reply is that your contact is busy (the most likely scenario), the last thing you want to do is take up even more of their time. Keep your follow-ups short and to the point.Offer some choices to see if that makes a difference - for example, if you initially asked to meet up for coffee, try suggesting a virtual meeting instead. It's a good idea to give a few alternative options in case the person you're contacting is busy or email isn't their preferred form of communication.Sending a follow-up email is totally okay and isn't considered rude (unless you're being overly pushy, of course - which we'll help you avoid).
People get busy, inboxes get full, and even the most well-meaning replies get forgotten. This goes double for cold emails, which are generally at the bottom of most people's to-do lists.
There are a lot of reasons why a contact may not have gotten back to you, and most of them have nothing to do with a lack of interest. This may be the simplest reaction, but while it's easy to do, that doesn't mean it's a good idea. You could forget about it - write it off as a rejection and move on. But what about those times when you reach out to someone and simply never hear back? Rejection is one thing - though never fun, at least it provides some closure. In the world of job seeking, there's probably nothing more demoralizing than putting yourself out there and getting no response.