how to lead yourself into the jobs you want

from business insider

Two years ago, a Stanford business school student named Tristan Walker sent Foursquare cofounders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvaduraian email out of the blue, asking for a job. Today, Tristan is Foursquare’s director of business development.  During his tenure, he’s built partnerships between Foursquare and huge brands such as Bravo, MTV, CNN, New York Times, NBA and Starbucks. To celebrate the two year anniversary of the email, Tristan just published it on his personal blog, along with some notes:

Hey Dennis and Naveen
How’s it going? Hope all is well!My name is Tristan Walker and Im a first year student (going into my second year) at Stanford Business School (originally from New York). Im a huge fan of what you both have built and excited about what you guys have planned for FourSquare. It is an awesome, awesome service.I would love to chat with you guys at some point, if you’re available,
about FourSquare. This year, I’m looking to help out and work extremely hard for a startup with guys I can learn a ton from. Dennis, with your experience at Google and the Dodgeball product, and Naveen, with your experience at Sun and engineering in general, I know I could learn a great deal from you both!

Before business school, I was an oil trader on Wall Street for about two years and hated it! Moved out to the Bay/Stanford to pursue my passion for entrepreneurship and the startup world. This past spring I had the opportunity to work for Twitter as an intern and learned a
ton. Solidified my commitment to working at a startup that I’m passionate about, and FourSquare is one of those startups that I believe in.

I know you guys are probably getting inundated with internship-type requests, but thought it’d be worth a shot! I can assure you Im humble and Im hungry! Let me know if you’d be interested in chatting further.
I definitely look forward to hearing from you.

Stay awesome!
Tristan
@tristanwalker

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tristan j. walker |  mba class of 2010
stanford graduate school of business

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