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Five years ago I did an internship as a back-end programmer at a company abroad. I had to come back to my home country to finish my undergrad studies, and thus the internship ended. The company said that I should contact them again when I receive my diploma, since they were really satisfied with what I did during my internship. I finished my studies earlier this year and at the moment I am working as a full-time business intelligence (BI) developer.

I checked their website and saw that they don't have open positions for back-end devs nor BI devs. Still, I was planning to send them an e-mail directly, asking for opportunities there. But I would prefer to work as a BI dev now...

How to ask for a job offer in this scenario, knowing that it has been a long time (about 5 years) since I did my internship there and how to "apply" for a different area than the one I did my internship before?

Also, I am afraid they won't remember me since it has been 5 years since I worked there and contacting them directly (without any open positions) will end up burning my image there.

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    I'd drop their HR department a letter to explain and attach your resume. I don't think that would be viewed in any way as unprofessional (lots of people send out their CV speculatively in this way). – delinear Oct 8 '18 at 14:41
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This isn't as rare of a situation as you might think. The best way to proceed is to contact your previous boss directly and say something like:

Hi, I recently finished my studies and am looking for a full-time position. I really enjoyed working with you and the type of work the company does (make this part more specific) and I am wondering if you have any openings where I might be a good fit. I would be very interested in returning if there are possibilities.

If your old boss doesn't work there any more, then try to figure out who you worked with or who knows you there that you can contact directly. 5 years isn't so long that they would completely forget who you are, especially if they liked the work you did.

Also, I am afraid they won't remember me since it has been 5 years since I worked there and contacting them directly (without any open positions) will end up burning my image there.

You shouldn't worry about this. Lots of companies have open positions that aren't yet advertised, and many more would consider opening a position for an employee that they know is valuable, but might not hire someone if it were just random internet submissions. I have seen this happen many times in my career.

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  • Do you think the correct protocol would be to contact my previous boss even though he isn't in charge of the team I would like to apply to? (He is a manager of back-end teams) – Xaphanius Oct 8 '18 at 15:21
  • I would reach out to the people that know you, yes, but just let him know what kind of work you're interested in. – dbeer Oct 8 '18 at 15:23
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How to ask for a job offer in this scenario, knowing that it has been a long time (about 5 years) since I did my internship there and how to "apply" for a different area than the one I did my internship before?

I would wait until they have an open position to which I would like to apply, you could use your cover letter to explain that you've worked there in the past and might even add the people you worked with within the company as reference.

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