Cold e-mailing Shopify to get a job in Canada
Shopify is an e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, with multiple offices around the world.
They are famous for making it easier for anyone to start an online shop within a few minutes. They charge a small monthly fee, and you get a fully functional e-commerce website and admin panel to manage the orders.
Shopify has been used by over one million companies around the world, including Unilever, Kylie Cosmetics and Allbirds. Chances are you have previously purchased something online from a Shopify-powered website.
As a massive multinational with a lot of growth potential still ahead of them, they are hiring aggressively and can offer visa sponsorship.
If that sounds like a good match for you, the first step is to head to their careers page to learn more about their culture and job openings.
We’re Shopify. Our mission is to make commerce better for everyone – but we’re not the workplace for everyone. We thrive on change, operate on trust, and leverage the diverse perspectives of people on our team in everything we do. We solve problems at a rapid pace. In short, we get shit done.
If you’re ambitious, make an impact everywhere you go, and you’re ready to shape the future of commerce with us, check out our resumé or jump straight to jobs.
— Photo: Katie MacDonald — Payments Integration Specialist — Shopify.com
As previously discussed, cold emailing someone from Shopify could put you ahead of most candidates applying for a job there.
One way is to start big, by trying and getting the attention of one of the co-founders. For this specific example, I recommend listening to the episode "Shopify: Tobias Lütke" from the "How I Buil This" podcast. Then check his twitter feed and research as much as you can and analyse if there's something on your story that could be relevant to contact him directly.
The next step is to browse through Shopify employees to see if you have any connections in common who could help you.
Finally, identify managers or senior employees who could help you with the specific role you're looking for. Find out their email addresses and reach out.
As an example, here's a cold email message to someone at the marketing team at Shopify:
Hi (name) - I was just talking to a friend who creates artisan bags and sells them in one-off events in a pop-up setting.
It's a side-project but she makes good money in these events. She never heard of Shopify and I've convinced her to start an online store. She was sold right away and her shop is now live at (url).
I think there's a huge potential for Shopify to sponsor some of these marketplace events and instantly acquire thousands of leads. I've just created a one-pager to explain how this could work: (link).
I'm applying for a Digital Marketer position in your team and it would be amazing if you could review the document above and my application at (url).
I hope this is helpful and please feel free to forward me your content if you need a review before sending out.
Thanks,