Finding Research Opportunities#
You’ve probably heard that you are supposed to network and gain experiences to set yourselves up for the next steps of your career and education. But how do you start that? In this activity you will do some basic research to FIND opportunities, and then you will draft a cold email to someone you would be interesting in working with to gain experience.
Part A: Researching#
Much of this activity comes from the SPS Career Toolbox Tool #3.
While employers are going to look at your major and GPA when making hiring decisions, they will also want to see that you have practical experience where you have developed skills that are relevant to the workplace. This experience may include: internships, co-ops, research, student teaching, campus involvement, service-learning, volunteering, military service, personal projects, entrepreneurship or others. Whether you undertake these experiences as part of your academic work (i.e., for credit) or not, you will learn valuable skills, have significant experiences for your resume and stand out to future employers. Make the most of your time in college to explore several different opportunities to better understand what is important to you in a job and have concrete examples of ways you have demonstrated your strengths and skills in various settings.
While you may have encountered a sampling of experimental work in your courses, engaging in a sustained research experience over a summer or several semesters will provide you with a better understanding of what it might be like to engage in research as a career. In fact, most students who gain undergraduate research do so by working with a faculty member. A research experience can enhance your communication skills, strengthen concepts learned in the classroom, and provide project based examples of your skills for your resume.
To start this process begin by reviewing the MSU Physics & Astronomy departmental research page. Take some time to just browse through these top level pages exploring the kind of research happening in the MSU PA department. (Note that many of these faculty actually conduct their research at FRIB or the NSCL.)
Once you’ve done some browsing, choose a research area that sounds interesting to you. Use the navigation bar at the right of the page to find at least 3 faculty members who are involved in this research. Go to each of those individual faculty members’ webpages and learning more about their specific research expertise.
Schedule a meeting or attend Help Room hours with Prof. Henderson to chat about your interests.
Part B: Drafting an email#
All of the following information comes for the University of California, Berkeley’s Office of Undergraduate Research & Scholarships office on “How to Cold Email a Professor.”
First introduce yourself. Address the Professor “Dear Professor So-and-so”. In just a sentence or two, you should mention your name, year, and major. Keep it simple! “My name is Oski Bear, and I’m a freshman majoring in ____.”
Explain why you’re emailing them about THEIR research. Here, you need to show that this isn’t just-another-research-email. You should use the work you did in Part A to provide some good evidence that you’ve at least looked them up! “I was looking at your website and found the idea behind your ongoing project on [x] to be very [x].” You don’t need to be CRAZY specific — you just need to show them that you have a genuine interest in what they do.
What do you want from them? Here, it’ll usually just be “any available position in your lab.” Modify it as necessary. You’ll also need to touch on the timing of this position. Are you looking for a fall position? A spring position? If you’re already thinking about the summer, you can mention that here too!
What is your availability? A general rule of thumb is to have 8-10 hours free in your schedule if you want to add on a research position. You should let the professor know how many hours you’re willing to dedicate to the position, and sometimes they’ll actually ask to see your semester schedule. If the professor has office hours, say you plan to come to their office hours on X day. If they don’t have office hours, request a meeting, and describe your availability for the next week or so. “I’m generally free Tuesday and Thursday afternoons as well as Friday mornings”. That way the professor, with a single email, can give you an appointment time.
Why should they pick you? This is a little tricky, since you might not necessarily have prior research experience. That’s okay though! Think about what you’ve done that could demonstrate that you are a strong candidate. Challenging coursework? Genuine curiosity? You can also rephrase a lack of experience as motivation to learn, telling the professor that regardless of your lack of experience, your deep motivation to grow and learn would make you a dedicated and hardworking member of their team.
Attach your resume! Attach it to the email, and mention you’ve included it: “I’ve attached my resume…”.
REVIEW your writing! Set up an appointment with Danny to review your email and to make sure the tone is professional, that the closing is appropriate, etc.
Hit SEND! Students get research positions all the time because they asked. Now that you’ve drafted that email – consider sending it out to the 3 faculty members you identified in Part A!
Note: This activity was reposted by Danny Caballero, adapted by Rachel Henderson from Vashti Sawtelle. Original content was adapted from the SPS Career Toolbox and the University of California, Berkeley Office of Undergraduate Research & Scholarships.