Stop Agonizing and Hit Send

If there’s one thing everyone knows about engineers and scientists, it’s that we’re outstanding and confident communicators.

Psych.

God, I wish.

For a population with so many other capabilities it blows my mind that overall, we’re not great at transferring ideas and knowledge to one another. I’ve ghost written more emails for friends and colleagues than I can count, and they really boil down to just a few types. Here are formulas for how to execute each of them.

1.      The Icebreaker: You’re reaching out to someone to introduce yourself, but don’t have a particular ask. Maybe you attended their lecture, maybe you’re going to be working with them. Either way, you need a not awkward way to break the ice and potentially bring them into your network. Here’s the formula you’re going to want to follow.

Greeting + Connection + Personal Overview + Question to Get the Conversation Going + What Next + Sign Off

Example

Hello Andrew,

I’m Matt, we met at the lunch and learn this afternoon. I’m one of the back-end developers here, I work on the 6th floor. I really liked your presentation, and I was wondering if you had any recommendations on where to start looking to get a better high-level understanding of vector graphics.  I hope we get a chance to work together in the future!

Best regards,

Matt

2.      The Introduction, One Sided: The decision to connect two people in your network to each other is one you need to consider carefully (more on this later). However, once you’ve decided to pull the trigger on if, it’s time to turn to how. If you want to make an introduction and only pass contact information one way, here’s a good formula to follow.

Greeting + Context + Introduction + Stepping Out (don’t micromanage the relationship going forward!!) + Sign Off

Example

Hi James,

As you know, I serve as a professional mentor for my Alma Mater, and in that role meet a lot of different students. One has caught my attention, and I wanted to connect you two. I’ve been mentoring Mary for the past 6 months, and I think her background in CAD, manufacturing, and systems engineering might make her a good fit for the intern position you posted on LinkedIn this week. She’s currently a junior at UCLA, and looking for a summer internship. I’ve included her contact info below in case you want to reach out.

Hope to talk to you soon,

Adam

3.      The Introduction, Mutual: Like the name suggests, here’s how to connect two people if you have the green light from both parties to pass each other’s contact information along.

Greeting + Context + Introduction #1 + Introduction #2 + Stepping Out + Sign Off

Example

Good afternoon James & Mary,

I’ve had the chance to speak to both of you about the potential of Mary joining James’ team this summer, and wanted to connect you both.

James, Mary is my current student mentee for the academic year. We’ve covered a broad range of topics, and her background in CAD, manufacturing, and systems engineering made me think of your job posting immediately.

Mary, James is my old boss from [company]. We worked together from 2017 through 2020, and most of my design for manufacturing knowledge is thanks to his teaching.

You’re both copied on this email, so please feel free to reach out to one another at your convenience.

Best regards,

Adam

4.      The Apology: You’ve messed up, and now it’s time to make amends. I think a good apology is an exceptionally powerful underrated professional skill. Here’s how to craft one.

Greeting + Summary + Admission of Guilt + Acknowledgement Impact + Mitigation + Apology + Sign Off

Example

Nikki,

I’m reaching out to apologize for failing to review your design review slides before the dry run to leadership yesterday. This task slipped off my radar, and that is unacceptable. I know you were counting on my input, and I’m afraid I left you hanging. If you’d still like my thoughts, please let me know and I will leave comments before close of business tomorrow in time for the final presentation. I’m sorry for not following through on my commitment, and will strive to be more careful in the future.

Thank you,

Mark

5.      The Ask: One of the most common areas of discomfort I see in young professionals is asking for something. The message they tend to default to is something along the lines of, “Hey can I ask this favor of you, if not that’s totally fine, I’m sorry I even brought it up, forget I even mentioned it, if you’d rather run me over with your car that’s okay too.” Not that you need anyone’s permission, but in case you feel like you do, allow me to be the one to tell you that you’re allowed to ask for things at work. Whether it is more support, taking time off, the chance to shadow someone in another role, or professional development opportunities, you are well within your rights to make requests. Here’s how to start that conversation.

Greeting + Context + Ask + Benefit + Sign Off

Example

Hi Rachel,

At our last quarterly one on one, you mentioned that our department had some additional money in our professional development budget. I’ve been offered the opportunity to attend the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers national conference from November second to sixth, and I’d like to ask if you’d be willing to allocate a portion of our professional development budget to facilitate my attendance. I think attending SHPE would help me grow as a leader, and better serve our diverse group. This opportunity would also align with my Q4 stretch goals of deepening connections on our team, and growing our recruitment pipeline.

Thank you for your consideration,

Michael

Which type of email do you struggle with the most? Are there any big ones I missed? Let me know at YourSTEMMentorBlog@gmail.com!