In our increasingly digital world, email has become the primary medium for professional communication. Making a good impression and using proper email etiquette can make a marked difference for all of us, especially for Early Career professionals.

With the return of a robust in-person conference, chances are you’ll be making new contacts with whom you’ll want to keep in touch. Follow these tips from the Early Career Program to help your emails sound professional and garner faster, more informative responses.

Use these tips from to keep in touch with those you meet at SC22.

Make the Subject Clear

The subject line is one of the first items a correspondent will notice. If you make your subject line short, concise, and clear, your email will more likely be given appropriate attention. Let’s look at an example:

Title 1: “Quick question”
Title 2: “Software Quality Process Question”

You might be tempted to go with the first title – it’s short and claims that the question is quick. The receiver, however, has no concept of the topic. Is it a subject in which they have sufficient knowledge? Will answering that question right now require context switching? The more descriptive you can be with the fewest words is the right way to get your reader’s attention.

Address and Sign-off Respectfully

How should you address your correspondent? Unless you are already familiar with them, it is always best practice to be more formal as a way to show your respect. Use their proper title and name (e.g., “Dr. Smith”) and make sure to spell it correctly. Additionally, make sure your salutation is sufficiently formal. Good examples are: “Good morning/afternoon”, “Dear (name)”, and “Hello, (name).”

Similarly, be professional and formal in your own sign-off and signature. End gracefully by using a phrase such as, “Please let me know if you have any questions” or “Thank you for your time.” You may then amend these with a professional farewell such as “Best” or “Sincerely”. We also highly recommend creating a standard signature block that includes your name, professional title, company or institution name, and your contact information. For example:

Dr. Janet Smith
Research Scientist
Institute of Science
P: 555-123-4567
E: jsmith@email.com

Keep It Short

Much like your own, your reader’s time is precious. If you can say it in fewer words, do. Start your email with one sentence that gives a high-level summary of the rest of the content. Use formatting to your advantage to bring attention to important information (e.g., bullet points, bold, italics). Make sure the questions, action items, and deadlines are explicit and easy to find. As an example:

I am writing this email to request a review of my presentation for the workshop next week. If you could please do the following:

Review the attached file
Send feedback by Friday at 12 pm

Avoid Informal Language

Tone and meaning are frequently lost in text-based media. This is especially true when taking cultural or language differences into account. Miscommunication can easily occur when cultural differences aren’t taken into consideration. It may be common for you to “hammer out details” with your colleagues, but to one who speaks English as a second language, they may not immediately understand what that means. To ensure clarity and accessibility, strive to use proper language with correct grammar and avoid slang/colloquialisms, excessive humor, and undefined acronyms.

Don’t Wait Too Long

Responding to emails quickly is an important factor in building a reputation as a reliable colleague. It can be difficult to reply to every email sent to you, but you should try. If a correspondent has taken the time to reply to you or reached out to you with a question of their own, it is a sign of respect to respond accordingly – and will make them more likely to do the same for you in return. If you can’t reply to the whole email now, that’s fine – send back a quick reply to let them know when you will get back to them (e.g., “I appreciate you sending this email and will reply in full next week.”).

Review Before Sending

Before hitting the send button, take a few minutes to review your email once again. If you are responding to an email, be sure you answered all the questions asked of you and be sure you are not asking questions already answered in the original message. Proofread to correct misspelled words. Are you confident your email is as professional as it can be? Then send it on its way!

Thaleia Dimitri Doudali

Having just earned her PhD in computer science from Georgia Tech University in 2021, Thaleia Dimitra Doudali was ready to embark on the next phase of her career.

At the urging of her advisor, Ada Gavrilovska, she applied for and was accepted into the Early Career Program for SC21 in St. Louis. The series of workshop-style sessions, pre-conference webinars and mentoring opportunities with experienced HPC professionals made a major impact on Thaleia during a transformative moment in her career.

“I knew I would get valuable advice and guidance to navigate this challenging transition on my academic path,” explains Thaleia, now in her first year as an assistant research professor at IMDEA Software Institute in Madrid. “I particularly enjoyed the mentoring sessions and panel discussions on topics that are often not discussed, such as how to build resilience, set goals and promote yourself to thrive as a junior member in a professional environment.”

Bashir Mohammed

Two years earlier, at SC19 in Denver, Bashir Mohammed – now a Computational System Research Engineer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – had a similar experience with the Early Career Program.

“The program helped me understand some of the issues and potential challenges faced while navigating a successful research career.”

“I had the opportunity to meet and learn from some great senior experienced scientists and researchers,” says Bashir, whose work focuses on developing machine learning algorithms as part of Berkeley Lab’s cybersecurity R&D for science and scientific workflow data management for HPC in the Integrated Data Frameworks(IDF) group. “I found the program super useful, interesting, interactive, and engaging.”

Yasaman Ghadar

Mentorship was an important aspect of Yasaman Ghadar’s experience at SC19. “My mentor there was an HPC solutions architect with experience in bringing new machines to life. He was very friendly and provided valuable insight on how to stay current with new architectures and the HPC environment in general.”

Yasaman is certain that experience played a part in securing her new role as Training PI with the Exascale Computing Project; she is currently an assistant computational scientist at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility.

“Attending this program helped me navigate through the HPC world and learn to communicate with people from different backgrounds,” Yasaman added. “It created more opportunities for me in terms of career growth.”

Valeria Barra

Valeria Barra feels similarly. She applied to participate in SC19’s Early Career Program in order to connect with other early-career researchers while acquiring professional development skills. And it worked.

“I particularly enjoyed the session on key professional communications. I learned a lot from it,” says Valeria, a research software engineer at California Institute of Technology. “I still remember the important tips they gave us on how to properly structure paper abstracts. Now, I can better communicate my research and increase its impact.”

A session on communication will also be part of the Early Career Program this year. We seek to provide a program of value, and plan to accept up to 40 participants. The deadline to apply is July 31, 2022.

Early Career Applications