How to compose a professional email.

Professional email correspondence should not be taken lightly. Email is one of the most common forms of communication and should not be considered a text message type of communication. As a professional you will be using this form of communication with many different employers and personnel working in the entertainment business. How you communicate with clients can have an influence on the project you may work on, it may affect the working relationship and could even affect your ability to get paid.

If you know and understand the basic rules for composing a professional electronic mail, you will be a step ahead of everyone else and will look professional while doing it.

Below are the major points you need to know when sitting down to write a professional email.

Professional Address:

This is the first thing the recipient will be reading when the email is delivered. If your email address has weird spellings, profanity, and lots of numbers and/or characters in it, they are most likely to do the following.

o   Not open it for fear of spam or virus files.

o   Open it but not take the email seriously and think of you unprofessionally.

What should your email address have in it?

It should have your first and last name. This will help them identify whom the email is coming from and also help them feel more comfortable with opening any attached files.

Bad Example: kitcat88@yahoo.com, is not professional and would most likely get caught in the spam filter or ignored if it does make it to their inbox.

Better Example: BobSmith@yahoo.com, this works for most employers and is considered very professional.

Subject Heading:

Create a subject heading for your email that is relevant to the conversation. The subject heading gives the reading an understanding of the main topic that you are going to discuss in the email.  This is considered a very important part of the composition process. Many professionals use email everyday and knowing the subject will help them work through emails with ease and minimal effort.

Addressing your email:

Ever wondered what the CC: and BCC: are used for in your email? Obviously we know the TO: means whom we are addressing or writing our email. The CC: and BCC: are used in different ways and can be a very helpful part to the composition process. The CC: referrers to the term Carbon Copy and will copy any recipient to the email chain and reply all if needed. The CC: includes that person in the conversation but doesn’t necessarily mean that they need to respond to the email.  

If you include and email address in the column designated as BCC: they know you are including them in your email, but also knows that the other readers that are in the TO: and the CC: will not be aware that you have included them in the BCC: column.  Any address listed in the Blind Carbon Copy will not be visible to the other recipients.

Example:

To:  sue@domain.com (recipient, seen by all and part of the reply all function)

CC:  bob@domain.com (seen by all and part of the reply all function)

BCC: joe@domain.com (not seen by all readers, not included in the reply all function)

Composing an email:

When starting the composition of the email, consider how you address your reader in your opening greeting or salutation. It is professional to start with a greeting that is appropriate to the relationship you have with the reader. You might consider the following as the most professional opening and use of punctuation:

Dear Mr. Smith, A common can be used if you know your reader personally.

Dear Mr. Smith:  A colon should be used if you do not know your reader personally.

Hello Mr. Smith, This greeting would be used in a personal email to someone you already know.

Mr. Smith No salutation or punctuation to your reader is expectable, but can be seen as rude.

Once you have opened your email with a proper salutation, you will not need to repeat your greeting in a response to your reader in the email chain. Your first greeting will be acceptable as the chain of the email conversation continues. If you are the recipient of the email, you should respond to the writer with an appropriate greeting for your first response in the email chain. Once you have responded with a professional greeting it will not be necessary during multiple responses in the conversation and email chain. However, if another reader, perhaps in the CC or BCC column replies to the email, you will address them in your response. Keeping multiple responses organized by responding with the reader’s names allows multiple readers and responders to understand the chain more effectively.

Be careful with the reply buttons. Understanding these could keep you from sending a response to the wrong person or multiple people. There are a few options you have to respond to an email. Reply, reply all and forward. When you hit “reply”, you will only be replying to anyone in the TO: column. “Reply all” will reply to everyone in the TO: and CC: columns. Forward will send the email conversation to a new recipient; a new email chain and email composition starts over with a new greeting.

Other options in this bar are the meeting function. This can be used to create a calendar invite to be sent to your readers. Let’s say you have emailed a client to discuss when he or she would be available to meet and discuss your project. After you replied with an agreed upon date and time, you can use this function to create a meeting reminder that will automatically add to yours and their calendar. These will also allow you to see who has agreed to meet with you and who has not.

Please see the example below. At the point this email is sent it will do two things: create a meeting in the senders calendar and send an invite to the recipient/s asking them to accept or decline the invitation. Their response will be sent to the creator of the meeting letting them know if they will attend. This is a very helpful function when planning projects and meetings.

The body of the email

Always keep your reader in mind while writing them a message. Professional emails should get a clearly stated point a crossed and as briefly as possible.

Be sure to address any attachments you have added to the email. Making sure the reader knows to look for any attachments. Just because you have attached it does not guarantee they will know to look for it. 

Your name and signature

Before you send your email, you should be sure to end it with a professional closing and signature. Keep in mind that your name is most likely in your email address but that doesn’t confirm who sent the email.  It is very professional to type your name and signature after a strong closing statement. Here are a few options that can be used:

Professional options

Regards,

Best,

Sincerely,

Thank you,

Respectfully,

Not professional, more personal/friendly

Peace,

Word,

Love you,

Yours truly,

With love xoxo

By taking the time to consider your reader, and the way you are choosing to communicate with them, will help anyone view you as a professional. When sitting down to compose your next email, I hope you keep these simple steps in mind.

-The Career Coach

P.S. You should respond to any emails you have received within 24 hours, even if you don't have an answer for them just yet. Let your reader know you have received it but need time to consider their request. Let them know when your will be getting back to them.

10 Common Time Management Mistakes - Time Management Training from Mind Tools.com

10 Common Time Management Mistakes - Time Management Training from Mind Tools.com

Professionalism, why is it important?

What does it mean to be an entertainment industry professional? What does it mean to you? The meaning of this word is different for just about everyone I’ve met, and a lot of people do not even think it exists.

If you ask me, it’s determined by how you’ve made someone feel about your working relationship. You are probable thinking…FEEL? Yes, Feel! It comes down to two things; how you react to the things that happen in your working relationship, and how you treat people. Everyone wants to feel appreciated, or at the very least… respected. It’s not easy to work with someone who doesn’t show and give you respect.

Again, I know what you must be thinking, not everyone deserves respect, and that is exactly my point. If you can treat all co-workers with respect even when it is not deserved, and even if you feel that it’s not likely that you’ll work with them again, then you are a professional. Keep in mind the chances of having to work with that person again are actually quite possible.  It’s a very small industry.

This should be a mantra for you, and a rule of your working day. If you always treat everyone with respect, and treat them the way you’d want to be treated, then what’s the worst they can say about you? If you know how this business works, then you’ll understand that statement immediately. Your image, your professional work image, is how you get and keep jobs. This is how people are going to describe you when discussing working with you. “Oh, he’s such a great guy” or “Yeah, she does really great work”. 

Here are three key traits to becoming a working professional.

• Treat everyone the way you’d like to be treated. It doesn’t matter their station or status. Of course you should be professional with your boss or the president of the company, but why not with the receptionist or the person from the mailroom? Do they not deserve to be treated as a professional? Many times I’ve seen people who’ve started out in those entry-level jobs rocket into positions of power within only a few years. If you live by the mantra of always being professional, then these people will remember that you always treated them with respect and your working relationship will be all the better because of it.
• Time management. These days everyone is uber busy. But don’t be too busy to have respect for other people’s time. I read a sign recently that puts this idea into perspective. It said “your lack of preparation does not constitute an emergency on me” or something to that effect. Meaning, get your stuff together, and don’t expect me to move my schedule to accommodate your mismanaged time.
• Discretion. There is a side to the entertainment industry that is full of telling insider juicy gossip. The tabloids make a mint off of it every day. There is an unwritten rule in this industry; you don’t talk about your clients or the projects you are working on until they are finished and approved. One example of this is talking about your clients in public or about them to your other clients. Whether it is good or bad talk, it’s still talk. That is going to make them feel like you can’t be trusted with their projects or thoughts.  A lot of my clients didn’t want us to discuss the project with anyone else outside the studio. They wanted us to wait until it came out. Sometimes projects get shelved or have been cancelled because the company did not think it was any good. OUCH! That’s a major blow to their ego and even worse if the entire world knows about it too.

 Good luck,

-The Career Coach

How networking at school can help your career.

So, I’m sitting in a coffee shop at noon on a Thursday, and I see many people with their ear buds in working feverously on their laptops. Some are moms hanging out with other moms. There are kids playing in the “kids” area. Some look like writers about to finish their first novel or screenplay.

Next to me is a guy who at first seems to be lounging around talking on his phone, but after sitting here for a bit, I realize, (because I’ve been eavesdropping) he is a freelance musician. He his calling all his connections, telling them that he is in town for a couple of weeks, and is available for work. Some calls are short and sweet, and others feel like he is catching up with old friends. But let us not be fooled, he is working… he’s networking! He is calling, emailing, reading the web, and invested in his day. What seemed like a harmless phone call has now turned into an obvious workday. By the end of these few hours, he seemed to have landed another gig. This got me thinking about how networking is such an integral part of what we do. It should start at school, and it usually does!

Here’s a good example of networking at school:

Mack and Justin are two students that I had the pleasure to meet while taking my class. They both had mutual friends at school and met each other few brief times while attending school. I’d say they were good acquaintances.

After graduation, Mack moved to New York City to pursue a career in music production and landed a gig assisting for Mix Engineer. Meanwhile, Justin moved to the West Coast and started looking for internship opportunities in Los Angeles.

About a year later, the mix engineer (from New York) decided to move his business to the West Coast, opening up a studio in Los Angeles. Mack was not available to move, leaving the engineer with a void in his production team. Knowing that you should always give back to your network when you can, Mack offered Justin’s contact info to the engineer and gave a recommendation for the job. The engineer understood that Mack’s reference was extremely valuable and decided to give Justin a call. Justin was in an internship at a studio here in L.A., but didn’t really feel the potential for it to go anywhere.

When Justin got the call from the engineer, he jumped at the chance, and was able to take advantage of this opportunity. Justin busted his butt to make the job into what it is today. And as time progressed, the engineer has come to rely on Justin. Hard work and determination was the catalyst for originally getting that recommendation, and also what made him successful afterwards. Justin has developed his career as an Audio Engineer with that same hard work and solid work ethic. Justin has been credited on albums and has worked on all sorts of other great projects.

This all came from two students who knew each other and seeing a great work ethic between the two. Justin is a professional who is very talented and was always destined to have a great career. He was not afraid to put himself out there, to get to know his classmates and let them see his talents and personality. Making such a good impression on Mack all those years ago ended up leading to this opportunity, and that was a result of great networking.

I personally think networking is a human instinct. We have to do it to survive on a very basic level, and the more you do it the more you have to do it, and you get better at it. It’s addictive.

Students should start now in school. Take a few minutes to talk to each other. If you don’t know someone, then introduce yourself. You can’t be shy! Tell people what you like to do, what are your passions, and why you like the work that you do. Always be professional, you never know where it will take you…

How to deepen your network:

ü  Join professional organizations. AES/Audio Engineer Society, Film Independent, AWN/Animation World Network, IGDA/International Game Developers Association - to name a few.

ü  Volunteer to work for events, or just go to them.

ü  Put yourself out there. No one will know who you are. They can’t help you if they don’t know what you want to do.

ü  Surround yourself with like-minded people. You are only as good as your weakest link.

ü  Read! Sign up for newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, blogs, READ THE TRADES or at least their websites. Keep yourself current.

ü  Social networks, be careful what you post and how you act online. It can hurt you and you can also hurt yourself. Protect your online profile like you do your social security number. One gives an understanding of your credit and financial background; the other gives who you are as a person. Think about that! 

-The Career Coach