Emails
Which greeting is more professional?
Hey Tom,
or
Hello Professor Smith,
Hello Professor Smith,
This form of non-verbal communication indicates that you are listening to a person when they are speaking.
Eye contact
Enunciate
True or False: Employers will judge your professionalism based on your voicemail message.
True
When trying to schedule an appointment with a professor, it is important to offer these in your email.
Available days & times to meet
Using this while someone is speaking to you can be a sign of un-professional body language.
Cell phone
True or false: Interjecting into a conversation while someone else is speaking is a productive method for demonstrating your knowledge.
False: Interrupting, even if what you say is true or important, can be damaging to the conversation.
When preparing for a phone call interview, it is important to do this ahead of time.
Confirm that there is a strong phone signal in the area where you plan to take the call.
This is NOT an appropriate time to send an email to a professor or employer.
True or False: The way you sit and stand influences how a person will judge you.
True
During a verbal conversation, this is just as important as speaking (maybe even more important).
Listening
This form of nonverbal communication is NOT available during phone call conversations.
Body Language
This email feature allows you to send a message to several recipients without them seeing the names/emails of the other recipients.
BCC (Blind Carbon Copy)
True or False: It is fair to judge someone based solely on their body language.
False: Just like other languages, body language can be a reflection of someone's cultural identity. Sometimes body languages across cultures can conflict. Also, we cannot assume someone's bodily abilities.
If you are having a conversation with someone with a stutter, you should NOT do this while they are speaking.
This component of verbal speech is especially important during phone call conversations.
Tone
Adding this to the end of all your emails is a common sign of professionalism and allows recipients to know a bit more about you.
During the height of the COVID pandemic, people often "bumped elbows" instead of exchanging this common gesture.
Hand shake
These are groups of words that are often culturally specific and not able to be translated into other languages. For example: "Raining cats and dogs."
Idioms
True or false: A potential employer probably won't mind if you wait seven days to return their phone call.
False: You should always try to answer a missed call within a couple business days.