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Mailing (rather, spamming :D) the professors and beyond
How it all started
How it all started
On texting a hostel senior on joining us for a debating workshop (I had become the rep by then), his text came:
Well, during my second semester here, I looked at the status, profile pics and posts of many of my seniors, who were touring various parts of the world. Out of curiosity, I asked him, and got to know that it was a research intern and the stuff related to that. Exploring another university, working with the professors and using the hi-tech equipment at the labs there, and last but not the least, visiting another country - seemed amazing!
By the way, this was only a minor reason. The major reason was that I really loved studying things in depth (and not limiting myself to slides/textbooks) since a young age - whatever I studied, I always referred to 3-4 books and satisfied my curiosity by exploring more stuff. I also loved solving complex and unconventional problems which involved new concepts. Moreover, adding to that, I also cleared some of the Mathematical and Science olympiads while in high school.
Cold mailing
Cold mailing
After the 3rd semester got over, I explored the webpages and research works of professors all around the world (and of IITD also), with the help of an excel sheet that a senior had posted on the department group and some universities on the BSW website. I had decided that I would either do it remotely or go onsite only if they gave me a decent stipend that would reimburse the travel and staying costs.
I had prepared a mail body to be sent to the professors I would like to work with. For those who would want to travel the path I did, here is the mail body (this is a specimen outline, you have to click on the link):
Respected Professor,
I hope this email finds you in the best of spirits.
I am a <current-year> undergraduate student in <your department> at <mention your college, full address (like college name, city, state, country)>.
<mention your field of interest, relevant courses you have done or will do in the near future, related to the field>
<some of your notable projects (pro tip: give a fancy name to some of the lab work/assignments you did, which were difficult or intensive, and/or gave a decent result, like COL100 and COL106 assignments or the ELP100 mini project and mention them here) >
<mention a genuine valid reason to work under the prof (for instance, interested in his research works). Try to be specific here, focusing on the area/works related to the given prof>
I am writing to you for a remote/physical research internship under your guidance. An opportunity to work with you would be highly encouraging and would boost my prospects, taking me closer to becoming a budding researcher.
My prime reason to work is to gain research experience and expertise and I assure to put my best efforts towards any assigned task and would look to bring a fresh and creative mindset towards our work.
I have enclosed my Curriculum Vitae, detailing my qualifications and work/project experience, and I would be grateful if you could spare a few minutes of your time to go through it.
It would indeed be a great honour to work under your able guidance.
Thanking you in anticipation,
Yours Sincerely,
<your name>
Dept. of <dept name>
<full address of college>
The best time to mail is immediately after your third semester ends (i.e. November end). Avoid spamming or generic blanket mailing, as they would irritate/offend the professors, and may spoil the name of the institute as well.
Don't get exhausted as you'll have to mail a large number of professors (nearly 1000 emails), as they are super busy and there is a very bleak chance that they will reply back to your mail (I got replies from nearly 100 professors i.e. 1 in 10).
Don't lose momentum and keep on mailing till you don't get an offer that suits you.
Don't use institute mail ID's as the institute domains are blocked by professors, to avoid spamming. Use a non-institute ID instead (I would recommend to create a new Gmail account of the format "<name>.iitd@gmail.com" or "<name>.iitdelhi@gmail.com" for speedy replies).
Most of the replies (~80) stated either "Sorry, I can't give you an intern" or "I'm really preoccupied". Looking at the positive replies, I inspected them. Prepared an excel sheet of university, topics, h-index of professors etc. Note that I mailed only the professors from CS and EE dept, obviously lol.
In all, I got less than 20 replies that satisfied me. Some asked for an interview over Zoom calls, some asked to directly start with the work, giving some research papers, the others talked via mail. They were ready to give me interns.
My first interview was with an NUS prof. Quite a chill person, liked the interaction. Gave some research papers and kept in touch. Project was related to wireless computer architecture and low power networks, was ready to host me onsite at NUS.
Another positive response came from a CMU prof. The topic was quite cool (Algorithms in music detection). Moreover, another IITD final student was working with for 2 years and I would be paired with him. Instantly mailed him in affirmation, and I was the latest addition to the 15-member team. We had weekly meetings related to the project now. Loved interacting with such intellectual people, though I had to leave the intern in a month :(
Got some more replies but didn't like the work so had to turn them down, by sending polite negative replies (don't ghost the mails if you don't want to take the intern, it is a bad practice).
Finally, I've zeroed in on taking the NUS onsite intern, after deciding the all factors. I liked the CMU one also, and he having a highly reputed profile and an awesome area to work on, it felt quite sad on leaving it after a few meetings, having enjoyed the discussion sessions. Would have definitely loved to make a duplicate copy of mine and selected that also. Moonlighting (though illegal :p) was an option, as one being onsite and the other remote, but would have been very very hectic to manage and take out time for myself, leading to an eventual burnout and the inability to focus on either.
Good news: I'm flying to Singapore on May 17, 2023 :)
Another advice which I would want to give to the reader is that go for a research intern if and only if you are interested in research. If you are unable to get a foreign research intern but you are interested in research, IITD has a research programme called SURA (Summer Undergraduate Research Award). You can work with IITD professors also, IITD has a good number of professors having a high quality research profile. Read this webpage for SURA.
If anyone wants to do research intern just for the sake of doing it or a CV point, but doesn't target going into research field, my advice is not to do so. Instead, during the summer break, it's better to practice tests and coding for the upcoming 3rd year intern, which is quite important for getting into the industry, being an excellent opportunity to boost one's career prospects and even secure PPO's (Pre Placement Offers) from companies, a way to join the companies without sitting for placements.
Don't get exhausted as you'll have to mail a large number of professors (nearly 1000 emails), as they are super busy and there is a very bleak chance that they will reply back to your mail (I got replies from nearly 100 professors i.e. 1 in 10).
Don't lose momentum and keep on mailing till you don't get an offer that suits you.
Don't use institute mail ID's as the institute domains are blocked by professors, to avoid spamming. Use a non-institute ID instead (I would recommend to create a new Gmail account of the format "<name>.iitd@gmail.com" or "<name>.iitdelhi@gmail.com" for speedy replies).
Scanning the inboxes
Scanning the inboxes
Most of the replies (~80) stated either "Sorry, I can't give you an intern" or "I'm really preoccupied". Looking at the positive replies, I inspected them. Prepared an excel sheet of university, topics, h-index of professors etc. Note that I mailed only the professors from CS and EE dept, obviously lol.
In all, I got less than 20 replies that satisfied me. Some asked for an interview over Zoom calls, some asked to directly start with the work, giving some research papers, the others talked via mail. They were ready to give me interns.
My first interview was with an NUS prof. Quite a chill person, liked the interaction. Gave some research papers and kept in touch. Project was related to wireless computer architecture and low power networks, was ready to host me onsite at NUS.
Another positive response came from a CMU prof. The topic was quite cool (Algorithms in music detection). Moreover, another IITD final student was working with for 2 years and I would be paired with him. Instantly mailed him in affirmation, and I was the latest addition to the 15-member team. We had weekly meetings related to the project now. Loved interacting with such intellectual people, though I had to leave the intern in a month :(
Got some more replies but didn't like the work so had to turn them down, by sending polite negative replies (don't ghost the mails if you don't want to take the intern, it is a bad practice).
What next?
What next?
Finally, I've zeroed in on taking the NUS onsite intern, after deciding the all factors. I liked the CMU one also, and he having a highly reputed profile and an awesome area to work on, it felt quite sad on leaving it after a few meetings, having enjoyed the discussion sessions. Would have definitely loved to make a duplicate copy of mine and selected that also. Moonlighting (though illegal :p) was an option, as one being onsite and the other remote, but would have been very very hectic to manage and take out time for myself, leading to an eventual burnout and the inability to focus on either.
Good news: I'm flying to Singapore on May 17, 2023 :)
A piece of advice
A piece of advice
Another advice which I would want to give to the reader is that go for a research intern if and only if you are interested in research. If you are unable to get a foreign research intern but you are interested in research, IITD has a research programme called SURA (Summer Undergraduate Research Award). You can work with IITD professors also, IITD has a good number of professors having a high quality research profile. Read this webpage for SURA.
If anyone wants to do research intern just for the sake of doing it or a CV point, but doesn't target going into research field, my advice is not to do so. Instead, during the summer break, it's better to practice tests and coding for the upcoming 3rd year intern, which is quite important for getting into the industry, being an excellent opportunity to boost one's career prospects and even secure PPO's (Pre Placement Offers) from companies, a way to join the companies without sitting for placements.
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