Professional Correspondence Workshop

Towards the end of the fall semester, Hailey McGleam, our SAIS Global Careers Manager, engaged the HNC community in a workshop about “Professional Correspondence” regarding the etiquette of professional communication, emails and cover letters. We spent an hour laughing, questioning our history of correspondence, and learning how to improve our professional communication skills. 

This Blog highlights important communication skills discussed in depth from one of our career related seminars.

Regardless of who we are, a professional, current SAIS student or candidate, or a reader randomly browsing through the HNC blog page, we all have our fair share of mishaps in our deliberations. Perhaps you spelled someone’s name wrong on an email exchange; sent an AI inspired correspondence that made you sound more poetic than you are; or contacted the wrong professor (with the right name) telling him how much you love his class (which they do not teach). It happens to us all. Hailey knew this and came prepared with various examples to help us gain a bit more insight on how to regard our professional correspondence. Let’s review a few important points:

1. Address your letter to a specific person; be factual and concise; and do your research.

Reaching out to a specific person is a lot less scary than a faceless mega corporation. Professionals are busy, so your chances of extracting value from any interactions increase substantially with them knowing you are not trying to waste any time. Be clear in what you wish to gain from connecting with someone, and demonstrate your knowledge by avoiding any questions that could be answered by a simple google search. 

2. Give examples that support your skills and qualifications

This tip relates more towards creating cover letters. You have very little space to demonstrate your potential value, so think carefully on how to integrate skills and qualifications that fit their needs into the letter. Show off how awesome you are! Don't make it difficult for employers to see how many checks you fill in their boxes.

3. Salute with official title and Last Name (IE Dr. Webb)

Imagine you spend years pursuing a degree, studying and researching over hundreds of sleepless nights... just for a random person that wants something from you to completely undermine that work. Yea, I could understand if they don't respond, so take the time to confirm their official title to be on the safe side.

4. Triple check you have spelled their names right

I personally only respond to the name my parent's gave me, so it would make sense if others ignored me for disregarding proper spelling. Especially in the age of copy and paste, so even if a name has fancy accent marks, you should make the effort to even quadruple check! 

5.Do not casually include the words “emergency” or “urgent”

Under most circumstances there is no emergency that warrants their immediate attention from someone outside of their work organization. Reach out calmly and well before any possible deadlines in which you would need them, and hopefully they respond in a timely manner. Do not cause any unnecessary stress.

6. Do not ever use the subject line as the demand of the email, with no body text

It is common courtesy and professional to give a general heads up about what your email is about in the subject, and then quickly ease the reader into why you reached out and what you would like from them in the body text. 

 

7. Emails should not come across as text messages to a friend

Avoid abbreviations such as "jk" and "tysm". Emails should be written out in plain and professional English that even Shakespeare would be proud of (if adjusted for language evolution of course). If reaching out in another language, first make sure it is the official language the company or institution operates in and do your due diligence that you are using appropriate and professional-grade vocabulary.

8. Ask, don’t demand

You are reaching out to someone that could possibly help you in a myriad of ways or toss your application to the side, so try your best to write in a kind tone and ask politely for what you wish to gain from said person. 

Have you ever made any of the mistakes included above or others? I, for one, used to add exclamation marks and smiley faces to soften my tone in emails. But I’ve realized symbols are not always universal signs of kindness. Precise and detailed communication result in more positive impressions than random exclamation marks. Communication is an honest endeavor. It can reveal many things about our character. Thus, it is an art that we can always continue to improve.

By Kelany De La Cruz MAIS' 26 & Carlos Vicente Sanchez Paz MAIR' 26