Everyone should do this at least twice when they are a student, once to have the experience of doing it and one to realize it works *without* announcing you have a student’s special permission to try doing it.
I think people persistently overestimate how many folks want to get in touch with decisionmakers, particularly decisionmakers one or two hops from limelight, and underestimate where they are viz the bar of being interesting enough to warrant N minutes of time.
And to the extent a particular person is *truly* too exposed and *truly* uninterested in talking to you, there is a well-functioning system designed by experts in this sort of thing which is designed to protect their time and funnel issues unworthy of their attention to others.
