Career & Professional Development Blog

Pause Before You Send: 12 Tips for Effective E-Mailing

As Fall approaches, job applicants are sending out e-mails in full force.  Unfortunately, some applicants may needlessly miss out on professional opportunities through inappropriate use of e-mail.  Keep the following 12 tips in mind when reaching out to potential employers and networking contacts.  (I also recommend these tips for communicating with law school faculty and staff).

1. Use a professional e-mail address. 

2. Indicate the subject clearly in the "Subject" field.  Do not leave the subject line blank.

3. Check your e-mail settings for proper formatting to prevent odd spacing and line breaks.

4. Make sure you identify yourself and leave contact information at the end of the message.  Include your full name in every e-mail.

5. Treat e-mails as you would formal letters.  Never begin without a salutation.  Always use a proper greeting such as, "Dear Ms. Smith."  End every e-mail with a proper closing.

6. Avoid using ALL CAPS, abbreviations (LOL), and emoticons : ) 

7. Use punctuation and proper capitalization as you would in any formal letter.

8. Be brief.  Be mindful that people receive large amounts of e-mail and won't appreciate a lengthy e-mail.  Do not risk losing your reader before he or she reaches the most important part of your message.

9. Proofread for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors.  Use spell-check.  When in doubt, ask someone to review your e-mail for any errors and proper tone.

10. Review your e-mail carefully and collect your thoughts before you hit send.  Sending out multiple e-mails back to back because you forgot to include everything you wanted to say or forgot to include your attachments is not ideal.

11. Factor in a reasonable amount of time for a response before you follow up.

12. Remember that e-mail is not always the appropriate mode of communication.  If an employer has contacted you via telephone, respond in kind.  If you have questions that may require long answers or you need to send a lengthy e-mail, consider using e-mail to ask when a conversation can take place.

Claudia Melo, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law   

An informative, useful email signature block, please

The paper letter has all but disappeared from the recruiting process, making it more important than ever that your recruiting email signature block be useful, informative and professional.  Why? 

1.  Readers will make judgments about the content.  Jokes for your pals belong in your "For my pals" signature block.

2.  People may want to pick  up the phone and call you -- shocking, I know. But, without your phone number below your name, the phone call may never come because your caller was distracted.

3.  And, of course, your email address should be professional.  yourname@yourschool.edu or your name@gmail are both fine.  Anything that was amusing when you were in high school should be banished to "Email for my pals," and your high school pals, at that.

My signature block from work is nothing if not informative (name, title, address, phone, fax, email, school blog, Symplicity links for on and off campus interviews, Alumni Student Connection, and, in season, a link to the University of Minnesota Law School's Theater of the Relatively Talentless [T.O.RT.]).

Susan Gainen, University of Minnesota Law School

Podcast series to aid transition from law student to legal professional

Suffolk University Law School launched a free podcast series titled "Transitioning from One-L to Summer Legal Work. The series, comprised of 19 podcasts, provides law students with valuable information and practical advice on how to successfully transition from law school to legal work settings, including how to draft e-mails to partners, etiquette at social work functions, and interacting with support staff.

Professor Jeff Lipshaw first alerted the legal blogging community about this new career development tool on the Legal Profession Blog on May 28, 2008. Professor Lipshaw introduces the new resource to law students with a persuasive encouragement.

It's time to clean up, put on the suits, and go to work. And Suffolk University Law School's acclaimed legal research and writing program now has just the iPod content you need for those commutes into the office.

You can read the complete post at the hyperlink below.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2008/05/new-free-podcas.html

I encourage readers to share these podcasts with their respective students. Imagine the results if more law students entered the practice with crisper skill sets related to the profession. The podcasts are availables Suffolk University Law School's iTunes U.

http://www.law.suffolk.edu/iTunes/

Carlos Davila-Caballero, Tulane University Law School