How should an international finance or quant student send LinkedIn outreach messages that actually get responses from senior professionals in the US?

LinkedIn connection requests from your laptop give you a 200 to 300 character limit for the accompanying note. Use it deliberately. The most important principle is to write in the language of the industry you are targeting, not as a student introducing yourself generically, but using the specific vocabulary of quant finance or capital markets. This signals immediately that you are not someone who needs to be walked through the basics. Keep the message short and specific: mention your background using industry-specific terminology, name a relevant area of expertise or experience, and end with a line asking to learn from the person's expertise or experience in the field.

• That specific framing, asking to learn from someone's expertise, works because it positions the other person as an authority and gives them a reason to respond that feels meaningful rather than transactional.
• Do not limit yourself to junior-level professionals.
• Senior people, including managing directors, are reachable through this approach.
• The worst outcome is no response, and you are at zero anyway, so reaching out broadly across seniority levels costs nothing.