卡耐基梅隆教授：我希望你能這樣跟我套磁

　　以下內(nèi)容譯自Scott E. Fahlman在quora上的回答：

　　我曾經(jīng)收到過很多很多的套磁信，所以今天我想來談?wù)勎覍μ状判诺目捶ā?/p>

　　首先，我非常不能接受群發(fā)套磁信。

　　無論什么情況，所有的教授都不希望收到的是一封垃圾郵件，一封隨便發(fā)送給同一個學(xué)校十幾位甚至幾十位教授的套磁信就是一封垃圾郵件，這說明你根本就沒有針對性或者沒有誠意地想加入我們。

　　其次，有些套磁信不夠具體，甚至連稱呼都沒有。

　　有的學(xué)生發(fā)來的套磁信中只有一個簡單的開頭Dear Professor，連具體的學(xué)校和項目名稱都沒有，也完全沒有提到我的科研內(nèi)容，更沒有提到自己的興趣或能力是否和科研項目相關(guān)，或者只是在官網(wǎng)上簡單地找了幾個相關(guān)的關(guān)鍵詞就說對這個方向很感興趣，但是這完全看不出來你有用心了解過我的研究方向或內(nèi)容啊，甚至有時候說的關(guān)鍵詞還是錯的，根本就不是我的研究方向!

　　通常收到這樣的千篇一律不真誠的套磁信，我都會直接刪除了，或者發(fā)一個關(guān)于項目介紹的官網(wǎng)鏈接，但是，基本上就算你后來去查了這個鏈接，我也不會再考慮這個學(xué)生了。

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　　所以，如果一個學(xué)生真的想加入到我的團隊，在發(fā)郵件之前，至少應(yīng)該花點時間了解一下我到底在做些什么研究，細(xì)節(jié)越多越好，可以查相關(guān)的論文。這不僅僅是對教授的一種尊重，更是對自己的負(fù)責(zé)，只有你真正了解了教授的研究方向，你才能知道這些東西是不是你感興趣的。

　　如果上述前提確定好，那么我想我關(guān)心的，也是大部分教授關(guān)心的就是你的科研背景是否和我的項目相匹配。

　　所以，在信中清晰地說明自己的科研背景、做過的項目、發(fā)表論文的情況、掌握的技術(shù)以及自己未來想從事的研究方向是整個套磁信中重要的部分。同時，如果能結(jié)合自己和教授的情況，說明自己能夠為項目提供的幫助也是很有必要的。盡管具體的匹配程度需要教授自己來判斷，但是邏輯清晰、語言準(zhǔn)確地推銷出自己也能夠讓教授看到你的能力或者潛力，即使不是完美匹配，教授也會認(rèn)真考慮。

　　基于以上，我認(rèn)為一份好的套磁信應(yīng)該直截了當(dāng)?shù)亟榻B自己的基本情況，然后重點說明自己的科研背景和對項目的了解、匹配程度，可以適當(dāng)詢問教授項目的具體情況。如果教授對你感興趣，自然會回答你的問題或者詢問你更多細(xì)節(jié)問題。

　　另外，教授是否回信大多取決于以下幾種情況：教授有多忙，你有多優(yōu)秀，你的英語表達(dá)能力，你有多么想為這個教授工作。

　　并且，套磁信盡量早點開始，這樣你可以有更多時間跟教授聯(lián)系，如果在申請旺季開始，每天我的郵箱里會收到茫茫多的套磁信，恐怕能不能看到你的郵件都是問題。

　　套磁并不能保證錄取。哪怕我很喜歡你，但是如果我當(dāng)時沒有項目資金再多雇一個人，或者出現(xiàn)了更好的候選人，那我也沒辦法要你。但是，如果我真的很欣賞你，也許我可以推薦你到其他教授或者其他項目那里。

　　以下是原文，可能會讓你更好地體會教授想表達(dá)的東西。

　　How do I write the first email to a professor that may accept me as his graduate student?

　　I get a lot of letters of this type. Let me tell you what NOT to do.

　　The first contact should not be a spam letter -- that is, a letter that you could easily have sent to 1000 faculty members worldwide, and probably did. Why should I spend more time answering your letter or reading your resume/CV than you spent writing the letter?

　　Often the letter is not even minimally customized. It is addressed to "Dear Professor" and does not mention the project name or the university, even though you think my work is wonderful and desperately want to work with me. The letter gives no indication that the writer has spent even a few minutes looking at the online materials related to my work. And then these hard-working people, so passionate about my work, go on to say that they want to work with me on "algorithms, data mining, software engineering, and computer vision" -- not areas that I currently work in.

　　Often I throw these notes in the trash immediately, or respond with a canned message pointing to a web page with info about how to get into a CS graduate program at CMU and about the specific issues of joining my group. (In case you're interested, see Page on cmu.edu.)

　　But once you send me that spam letter, there's no point in then going online and finding out what I do. You're already a loser.

　　So if you think that you really want to work with me as a graduate student, first take some time to find out what kind of research I really do. Then, if you have no experience or preparation in this area, get some. Read and think about my papers (and the essays on my blog), and some papers in related areas. Think about what you might be able to add to this, and what it will take to get up to speed. Do your homework. Then write me a brief letter, making specific reference to all of that.

　　Then maybe we can talk, and maybe something will come of it.

　　-- Scott Fahlman

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　　P.S. It occurs to me that there's something else I should have said: Yes, you should know what the professor works on, and should know enough about the field to know whether this work really interests you, before you bother a busy professor at all.

　　But, given that, the best kind of first-contact is a letter one saying, "I'm a student in my X year of Y university. I'm interested in your work on X (be specific) and would like to learn more about it. Can you suggest the best way to do that?" You may get a canned answer, but that's just because we all get so many of these queries. Read that stuff or play with the code, think about it, and see if you are still really interested. Maybe follow up, asking a specific question or two about the work, or try some little project based on the professor's work.

　　Whether the faculty member chooses to carry on such a correspondence depends on several things: how busy the professor is at that moment, how good you seem to be, whether there's a communication problem, and whether you seem to be truly interested in his or her work. Don't keep talking about how interested you are -- prove it! And try not to be too much of a load.

　　I've had a few correspondences of this type, and in a couple of cases it has led to my supporting the student for admission to one of our graduate programs. It's best to start this early, so that by the time the discussion gets around to graduate admissions, I have a very good idea of whether I would like you as a grad student. Even if I like you, this still might not happen -- it depends on whether I have an opening (and funding) for a new student that year and how good the other candidates are -- but this is by far the best way to get started. If I can't take you on, at least you might learn something interesting, and maybe I can suggest other faculty or other programs that might be a good fit for you.

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