How to make a good first impression.

1. Professional Skills:
Good First Impressions
-OR-
Life Hacks for Making Connections and Impressing People

2. What you should learn
 How to make first contact with a potential faculty
mentor (or anyone else in a professional setting)
 How to make a good impression
 This advice is for real-world use
 Life Hack: I will be using the term “faculty member”,
but you can replace it with “Graduate Program, Job
Lead, Potential Client, etc.”

3. Making First Contact
 If you can, find out how the faculty member would prefer to be
contacted – most use email but some would prefer a call or visit
 If you go to class in their building, go by their office to see if office
hours are posted
 Speak to someone in the departmental office where the faculty
member works to find out if they have a preference
 If you have a class with them, see if they state a preference in their
syllabus
 Introduce yourself at the beginning of the e-mail (or phone call)
 Tell the faculty member why you are interested in working
specifically with them
 Don’t leave them guessing why you contacted them - make sure
you have an “action point” – and state what it is
 “I would like to schedule a time to meet with you and discuss
working on research together. ”

4. Making Contact: What’s in
a Name?
 Using the wrong name or title when you contact someone is a bad first
impression (I told you this would be a pet peeve of mine)
 Always use a professional greeting at first contact
 Not “Hey” or “Jane”
 In academia, Ph.D.s, Ed.D.s, and Psy.D.s are “Dr.”; anyone else who
is teaching your class and has a different degree is “Professor”
 Outside of academia or when contacting someone who is not an
instructor, Mr. or Ms. LastName – not Mrs. LastName unless that is how
they are listed on the directory you used to contact them.
 They will correct you in their response if they would prefer to be called
by a different name or title, or check how the reply is signed – some
professors are fine with being called by the first name or nickname, but don’t make that
assumption for all of them
 Life Hack: LinkedIn and Google are great resources for finding out titles before you hit send

5. Making Contact: E-mail
Etiquette
 Use a professional e-mail address and account name (NOT
bamagirl2345@yahoo.com) - your Crimson account is the
best choice
 Make sure your name is correct on the account – sometimes
services change them to nicknames like “Alabama Email”
(Crimson) or “Holidays in the U.S.” (Gmail)
 Make sure you
 If you choose to have an email signature, keep it simple and
professional – no gifs, personal inspirational quotes, silly fonts,
etc.
 Pay attention to spelling and grammar!

6. Making Contact: Phone
Etiquette
 When leaving a message for a faculty member,
include your name, a brief statement of what the
call is about, and a number where they can reach
you
 Follow the same rules for addressing the person you
call
 Your voicemail greeting should be personalized and
professional in case you can’t answer the phone
when they call back

7. Prepare for Your Meeting:
Do Your Research
 Once you have scheduled a meeting, it’s time to
prepare for it!
 Learn as much as you can about the person (or
people) you will meet
 If you don’t understand something about what they
do, try and find out more from other sources
 If you can’t find the answer to a question you have
about them or their work, write it down to ask in the
meeting

8. Prepare Some Questions
 Prepare a list of thoughtful questions to ask at your
meeting – make sure you have enough that there
are one or two left unanswered at the end
 Remember those questions you wrote down while
you were doing your research? They’re a good
start.
 Some other topics for questions:
 Work expectations (the number of hours you’ll
work and when you’ll work)
 Work environment (will you be working with the
faculty mentor, his/her graduate students, will you
work alone at home or in a lab with others?)
 The research topic itself

9. First Impressions are
Important
 Dress professionally
 Show up on Time
 Don’t Be a Distraction

10. What Not To Wear –
Professional Edition
 Workout clothing
 Flip flops, very high heels, or ugg boots
 Sorority/Fraternity, graphic or other types of casual T-
shirt
 Clothing that is inappropriately tight, low cut, high
cut, or revealing

11. What Can I Wear?
 You don’t have to wear business attire to your
faculty mentor meeting, just look nice
 Clean, unaltered jeans or slacks
 A shirt or top that does not fall into one of the
banned categories
 Comfortable but clean shoes
 Life Tip: Find one business attire outfit that fits you well and makes you
feel confident. Keep it in your closet in case of emergencies.

12. Being Punctual
 Arrive to your meeting place at least 10 minutes early
(even earlier would be even better)
 If you have a scheduled phone call, remove yourself to
a quiet location 10 minutes before the call is scheduled
 Wait until you are called into the faculty member’s
office or until the meeting time has arrived and you can
knock on their door
 If an expected phone call does not come through 10
minutes after the scheduled call time, it is fine to send
an e-mail or make a call

13. While You Wait (Because I
Know You’d Never Be Late)
 Work on something quiet
 You could play Hollywood Life on your phone, but
bonus points if it’s something that makes you look like
a diligent worker
 Do not make phone calls, play music, or do anything
else distracting
 If there is not a designated place to sit, do not sit on the
floor
 If you need to set down your belongings, make sure
they are out of the way of foot traffic
 Life Tip: In real-world interviews, assume that someone is always watching
you. Make sure they have nothing bad to say about you when you
leave.

14. Meeting Your Mentor
 Shake hands and introduce yourself
 Address them correctly until they tell you to call them by
another name
 Ph.D.s, Ed.D.s, and Psy.D.s are “Dr. LastName”
 M.F.A.s or other faculty are “Professor LastName”
 Be attentive and take notes if it does not seem rude
 Ask questions if there is something you don’t understand
 Be prepared to answer questions about yourself
 Cross off any prep questions that have already been
answered

15. “Do You Have Any
Questions For Me?”
 Why yes, you do
 Almost invariably, this will be asked at the end of any
interview
 You should ALWAYS have questions ready to ask at the
end of any interview
 Ask 2 or 3 of your carefully prepared, unanswered
thoughtful questions
 Asking questions shows that you are interested,
engaged, and have put time and effort into preparing
for the meeting
 Life Tip: All of your questions were answered during the conversation?
“What skills and experiences are you looking for in an ideal candidate?”
Now you’ve opened the door to demonstrate how you meet those
needs.

16. Following Up
 If you are expected to send information, confirm
scheduling, or do some other action point after the
meeting, do so in a timely manner
 For casual interviews (like with your faculty mentor) send
a brief e-mail thanking them for their time
 Life Tip: After any professional interview, send a personal thank you note
to your interviewer(s). Include a detail that was discussed in your
interview. It also never hurts to be nice to any support staff you met
along the way.

17. To Summarize
 Research, research, research!
 Dress and act professionally
 Impress others by being prepared and asking thoughtful
questions