how to respond to requests to “pick your brain”

A reader writes:

A few years ago, I appeared in a series of videos about “how I got my job.” My job is pretty niche and there really isn’t a ton of institutional information about it yet, so it got a lot of attention. Since then, I’ve consistently gotten two to three LinkedIn messages per week from people looking to break into my field.

About 20% are just saying that they found the videos inspiring (which I love to hear!), 30% are just asking to connect, and the remainder are asking for more career advice — but in a very general way. Think “I’d love to get your thoughts on how to break into the industry/get hired at your company.”

I’m of two minds: I really want to help, but the volume of requests I get is much too high to respond to every single one. (I am working on a template email with generic info.) Also, maybe I’m being a bit of a Grinch here, but I bristle at how general the requests are. They make me feel like the person writing hasn’t actually done any of their own research (which, incidentally, is a huge part of this job). There even seems to be a trend now of people asking to grab 30 minutes for a phone call in their opening email! So, it’s probably not my place, but part of me wants to say, “Hey, this is not how to do it.”

Any advice for how (if at all) to respond to the more labor-intensive requests?

I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

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