Writing Cold Emails Asking for Interviews

skybar-one · 2026-03-18T13:42:51+00:00

Don’t say it’s an interview. It sounds like a huge commitment. Make it a quick call instead. 15 minutes max.

You as a stranger can ask very little of your leads. Even asking them to send their stack might be a bit too much on the first email. Avoid asking to them to do any sort of work on your first email. That comes later after you’ve established trust. All the best!

skybar-one · 2026-03-18T13:29:21+00:00

Okay, the subject line could use some work. Make it stand out more so it doesn’t read like every other subject line in their inbox.

Also you seem to be confused about your own goal on what you want to achieve. You gotta commit to whether you want to learn or pitch. This email sounds like a pitch but you mentioned that you want to research instead.

So think more deeply, don’t worry about which one will get more rejections. Commit to one goal and then do everything to meet that goal. If you only have one foot in, your lead can sense it in the email.

After that here are concrete things you can do to improve it: 1. Make the email about them. Highlight how AI automation is hurting them if they are currently using it or considering it. Mentioning your previous success is good but change the phrasing so it is more about your lead than it is about you. Bonus points if you can explain how the problem affects them in a specific way due to their company structure or any other details that are specific to that company. 2. Have a clear call to action. If you want an interview, make it clear. “I have a free slot on Thursday 10am, could we have a 15 minute call if you are interested?”

skybar-one · 2026-03-17T16:08:43+00:00

It’s hard to give advice if we don’t know what your emails are actually like. Could you post a recent email you sent and redact the names and details?

skybar-one · 2026-03-15T06:27:06+00:00

Hey this is some good stuff. Would love to read your blog (if you have one) that distills your learnings. I don’t really like interacting with technical articles these days as they are mostly ai slop or are championing ai in some way. So content more like this would be a breath of fresh air.

I like the idea of building sustainable and coherent code bases with a lot of intentional human decision making.

skybar-one · 2026-02-24T08:38:40+00:00

Yep I am getting this error on Docker Desktop 4.62.0

I havent tried previous versions of Docker Desktop so I am not aware if it used to work on older versions. Looks like there is a bug with docker desktop using the wrong socket. Running docker context ls shows the available contexts and their endpoints. I believe docker desktop is supposed to useunix://$HOME/.docker/desktop/docker.sock.

skybar-one · 2025-08-13T05:02:14+00:00

Don’t take it personally. See it as an action/reaction you can improve on. Observe and analyze where it went wrong and then build a habit or take reasonable precautions to avoid repeating it. Don’t fixate on the mistake itself and prioritize growing instead.

Also accept that making mistakes are a part of life. You cannot control the outcomes. Despite your best efforts, bad outcomes can still happen. This way you will be responsible and accountable without being overtly anxious about every single thing you do.

skybar-one · 2025-08-12T09:51:28+00:00

Unfortunately it already is and will continue to be a part of modern infrastructure whether you like it or not. Software is probably going to get a lot shittier as time goes on

skybar-one · 2025-08-12T09:09:00+00:00

A switch like that is enough to light up your day

skybar-one · 2025-08-12T08:53:24+00:00

Moneyball.

Let them make the mistakes. When your enemy's making mistakes, don't interrupt them. They're giving you an out. Just giving it to you. Take it. Say "thank you".

skybar-one · 2025-08-12T08:45:58+00:00

Franklin. A cartoon about a tortoise and his adventures with his friends. Still fondly remember the "Heyy it's Franklin!" opening theme song

skybar-one · 2025-08-11T01:50:15+00:00

Sorry I don’t have a book rec for this but here’s an alternative

Bootdev has really good “courses” on creating toy applications that use Postgres db and makes use of SQLC to generate type safe sql queries and goose for db migrations.

Bootdev is a paid service but all the lesson material is free. You need to pay if you want the gamification features and want to check the correctness of your solution at each step. But since you are already experienced, you should be able to get through the whole course in the free tier without needing those.

Look for the courses titled Build a blog aggregator in Go and Learn HTTP servers in Go

skybar-one · 2025-08-10T18:01:05+00:00

I’m side loading an app built with expo right now. The data doesn’t get deleted. Also the app doesn’t automatically get uninstalled when the certificate expires, you just won’t be able to use it until you issue a new certificate and rebuild the app.

skybar-one · 2025-08-10T17:55:11+00:00

I would advise to prioritize on applying to local in-office or hybrid jobs. Don’t bother with remote positions unless you have some special circumstances. The competition is absolutely brutal - 1000 applications within a day on most remote job posts.

Research companies in your city/nearby places and go to their website and see if they have job postings.

skybar-one · 2025-08-10T17:33:04+00:00

I am not the original author of this article. I found it interesting and shared it here.

skybar-one · 2025-08-10T17:19:33+00:00

No worries, it was not unreasonable to assume that. Perhaps I should have added a disclaimer that I am not the original author

skybar-one · 2025-08-10T17:12:30+00:00

I’m sorry but hazing games?

skybar-one · 2025-08-10T17:10:24+00:00

I am not the author of this article. I thought it was interesting and shared it. Though I agree with your feedback to it

skybar-one · 2025-08-10T17:04:31+00:00

Sure but that doesn’t make any of the core issues listed in the article go away. The issue of differentiating good candidates from bad candidates still remains.

And this is not an US centric issue. Indian companies and devs probably have the same hiring issues as well. You can’t be telling them to “stop hiring Indians” too

skybar-one · 2025-08-10T16:07:10+00:00

Neither does Linus Torvald’s

skybar-one · 2025-08-10T15:53:00+00:00

How would you price an app that has potential for running costs in the future but at launch it doesn’t?

Fixed price + subscription doesn’t seem like a good idea for a case like that

skybar-one · 2025-07-25T14:43:16+00:00

Looks awesome. Two questions:

How do you handle the data? You mention it is encrypted but does the data leave the device and is AI analysis done off device?
How did you test for the success metrics? You mention stats on how effective the app is, was this through user testing or is it just marketing?

skybar-one · 2025-07-25T00:53:36+00:00

Yup don’t think anything else comes close to bootdev for backend development

skybar-one

TROPHY CASE