How a job hunter's extreme networking strategy paid off

Hashim Mahmoud landed his current role at Angi after a focused several-month job search in 2024. He reached out to more than 1,200 people, spoke with about 150 of them, and secured around 20 interviews before getting the job. He used LinkedIn as the backbone of his outreach, keeping a spreadsheet of former coworkers, secondary connections, people at companies he admired, and those in roles he wanted to understand.

Every connection request included a short, personalized note asking for 15 to 20 minutes to learn about their background and company, and he followed up promptly when people accepted but didn’t reply. Those brief informational calls followed a simple structure: share a bit about himself, ask about career paths, key skills, and team culture, then close by asking whether his background might be a fit.

If not, he asked to stay in touch and requested introductions, often offering a prewritten message contacts could copy and paste. He always sent a thank-you after every conversation.

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