Connect With Tesla Alumni Association Influencers

The person hiring for your dream job is in your 2nd-degree connections.

(If they were a 1st-degree connection, you would have already seen it and reached out to them, unless you're not trying very hard to use LinkedIn as a job search tool ??).

So to expand your menu of dream jobs, you have to expand your number of 2nd-degree connections to the max.

To expand your number of 2nd-degree connections to the max, you need to make new connections with people who have a lot of 1st-degree connections themselves.

The easiest way to do this is to send connection requests to the members of the Tesla Alumni Association who have the most connections. These are our "influencers." The likelihood that they accept your request is near 100%.

As soon as they accept your request, all of their 1st-degree connections become 2nd-degree connections for you. Your menu of potential great jobs expands tremendously, just by messing around on social media.

Case Example:

Last week I spent about 15 hours delighting myself by exploring the Alumni Association membership rolls. I made my own little spreadsheet to track the most well-connected members, and as I looked through everyone's profile, I manually entered names, industry, number of followers, and any notes I cared to make. For example, so far we have at least four LinkedIn Top Voices in the group... I think that's worth noting.

Our most well-connected Alumnus (so far!) has 300k+ followers and 4.5k+ connections. He is a senior recruiter.

The top 25 most well-connected people in this group have a combined 700k followers. 16 of them are in the Staffing/Recruiting/Talent Acquisition industry.

I sent connection requests to all of them and they all said yes. Back-of-the-envelope, I figure I gained about 10k 2nd-degree connections in like a day.

But I didn't stop there, I kept going down the list until I had made requests to the top 60 or so, and they're all accepting my requests too. Other than recruiters, the most well-connected people in that group are venture capitalists and founders/co-founders of companies, C-suite executives, management and business development consultants, and even a few career consultants. Probably good people to have an "in" with.

And they want to connect with you! For these fellow alumni, their network is their business. Every connection they make makes their business a little stronger, especially if it's a Tesla connection. You're not a bother, you're a benefit! They love it. You don't GET a big following without wanting to gain as many new followers as possible. My wife has 707k subs on YouTube and 77k followers on Instagram , and there's nothing she likes better than gaining new followers.

And of course, these Alumni are the best possible warm leads for great jobs. Not only do they have a professional focus on getting the right people hired for every opportunity they know of - especially the most critical roles - they understand your value automatically, because they understand that Tesla Alumni are in a class by themselves.

If you don't even try to connect with the most well-connected Tesla Alumni Association members on LinkedIn, you're limiting your options tremendously for absolutely no reason. If you are not doing this, can you honestly say you're pursuing your next opportunity with Tesla Intensity?

How to do this yourself:

1. Get a 30-day free trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. I can't emphasize enough what a no-brainer this is. If you're in a time crunch to land your next job, you simply can't afford not to. If you haven't found what you're looking for after 30 days, pony up the $100 and keep going.
2. Make your spreadsheet and input names, links to profiles, industry, follower count, and any notes you care to make manually as you go. This is a great exercise. The insight you'll gain by soaking in the data this way is invaluable. If you prefer to save time by exporting search data, you can get the Wiza Chrome extension , but it's pretty pricey because they make you pay for a whole year at once.
3. In the search bar select "Lead Filters +".
4. In the "Industry" filter select "Staffing and Recruiting".
5. In the "Personal" group of filters, find the "Group" filter and select "Tesla Alumni Association".
6. In the "Best path in" filter, select "2nd degree connections".
7. Follow and make connection requests to literally everyone who shows up in the search results.
8. Do the same thing for the "Business Consulting and Services" industry, the "Venture Capital and Private Equity" industry, the "Marketing Services" industry, and anything else you can think of where it's super important for people have lots of eyeballs on their profile.
9. Take off the "Industry" filter and use the "Seniority Level" filter to find your Founders/Co-Founders, C-suite folks, etc.
10. HAVE FUN. Go wild with it. Spend at least 2-3 hours a day enjoying the very pleasant task of exploring the group's membership, and making connections with your awesome, awesome Tesla Alumnus friends.

The hope you'll gain from this exercise is like an anti-depressant. It will relieve your job search anxiety tremendously. The dopamine hits you get as the connection acceptance notifications roll in and more and more amazing Tesla Alumni are added to your network will literally improve your mental health. This will will make you a more attractive candidate, and a better everything else to your loved ones too.

After You've Done This:

1. Get to know your new amazing influencer friends! Peruse their profiles, posts, articles, podcasts, everything! Learn everything you can from them! Listen to them before you speak to them (this is good strategy for all areas of life btw). React, comment, and repost your favorites! Be generous and give to them as much as you can before asking for help.
2. Go NUTS searching your HUGE new group of 2nd degree connections for opportunities! Keep the "Group" filter on with "Tesla Alumni Association" selected, and the "Best path in" filter with "2nd degree connections" selected. Then add the "Connections of" filter, input your new amazing influencer connections one by one, and don't stop until you're drooling about all the AMAZING jobs out there just waiting for the right Tesla Alumnus to come along (you)!
3. Do NOT apply to these jobs without first connecting with and talking directly with someone at the company who can tell you what they're looking for and how to be the most attractive candidate. Be absolutely real with them. Tell them your Tesla story! 0% chance they don't at least like you after that.

If you go ahead and do this, COMMENT on this post and describe your experience! Your fellow Alumni need all the encouragement they can get; be a light in the darkness for all of us!