艾利森·埃斯波西托经常会收到陌生人发来的电子邮件，平均每天有五到十封之多。很多人写信问她，如何才能进入科技界工作，如何才能变换职业，以及咨询自己的简历是不是有什么问题，等等。

埃斯波西托曾在Foursquare公司做过文案，在谷歌公司做过内容经理，现在她创办了一家名叫Tech Ladies的公司。Tech Ladies是一个网络社区，它一方面将女性与科技业的职位进行匹配，另一方面也对科技界的职场女性提供各种支持。虽然埃斯波西托每天日理万机，但你要想认识她也不难，只要知道如何写好“冷邮件”就可以。

那么，她平时愿意回复哪种“冷邮件”呢？以下是她的一些建议。

1、写给正确的人

在谷歌工作期间，经常有人写邮件问埃斯波西托关于如何在谷歌求职的问题。很多人想进入的部门也根本不是她所在的那个部门。她表示：“如果你想问一个在大公司工作的人，那么你问的人要尽量离你想去的部门近一些。”

“在写电子邮件之前，先做一番研究，比如你可以在领英（LinkedIn）上搜索一番，将目标定位得越准确越好。”如果你想找一个市场部门的工作，却写信给了一个在财务部门工作的人，结果自然可想而知。”

2、你想要什么？别说“向你请教一下”。

埃斯波西托表示：“你的问题越明确越好。有的人发邮件不说正事，先说：‘你好，在吗？’千万别干这种事。接到这种邮件，我只能回复：‘我能帮你什么？’这样你就把责任抛到了你想问的那个人身上。”

邮件里最好只问一个问题。比如“下一步我该找一个什么样的工作？请给出建议。”或者“我创办的这家公司要想获得初步成功，我应该去请求谁的帮助？”等等。

在提问的时候，一定不要说“向您请教一下”这种模棱两可的话。你应该想想，如果你有机会向对方当面请教的话，你最想问的问题是什么？在邮件里直接问对方这个问题就可以了。

3、不要请对方喝咖啡

埃斯波西托表示：“经常有人发邮件给我，直白地邀请我喝咖啡。这就好比两个人还未曾谋面，你就要邀请对方去约会一样。”更何况埃斯波西托也根本没有时间跟所有邀请她的人出去喝咖啡。

“要有耐心，对对方产生更多的了解，然后建立私人的联系。如果你俩的对话进行得不错，你可以先要求跟对方通电话。不要一开始就提喝咖啡，因为忙碌的人每天都要应对很多这样的请求。”

4、索取的同时别忘了付出

埃斯波西托经常强调，在索取的同时千万不能忘了付出。如果你刚刚开始工作或者创业，或者你正打算换工作，“你可能暂时没有什么东西可以给予对方。”当埃斯波西托还是个职场新人时，每次她想认识一个陌生人，她经常会主动提出，愿意替对方做一些文字编辑方面的工作。

她也承认：“当然，很少有人有文字校对之类的工作要做。不过即便他们暂时没有需要你替他们做的事，这也表明了你把你们之间的关系视为一种双向的关系，而这就是一段很好的人际关系的开始。”（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

Allison Esposito gets a lot of cold emails—between five and ten every day, she estimates. People want to know how to break into tech, how to switch careers, and what’s wrong with their resume, among other things.

Allison has been a copywriter for Foursquare, a content manager at Google, and now she runs Tech Ladies, a community that connects women to tech jobs and generally supports women in tech. Her roles are impressive, but she’s approachable, she said. And so are most people. You just have to write the right cold email.

Here are her tips on writing the sort of cold email she’d be eager to answer.

Email the Right Person

At Google, Allison got job inquiries all the time. Often for totally different departments than the one she worked in. “If you are asking someone at a very big company, try to get someone as close to the department as you can,” she said.

“Do your research to get as close to the person, and do some LinkedIn (lnkd) stalking to try to make it as relevant as possible.” If you’re looking for a job in marketing and email someone in the finance department, they won’t be impressed.

What Do You Want? And Don’t Say to “Pick Your Brain.”

“Be as specific as possible in your ask,” Allison said. “Sometimes you get these emails that are like, ‘Hey, what’s up.'” Don’t do that. “I end up writing back with ‘what can I help you with’, which is putting the onus on the person you’re asking.”

One question is best, said Allison. Do you want advice on what job to look for next? Or whom you should reach out to help get your startup off the ground?

Your one question should not be “Can I pick your brain.” Way too vague. Think of the first question you’d ask them should you have the opportunity to “pick your brain” and ask that instead.

Don’t Ask Them for Coffee

“Something I see happen a lot is people will email me and straight up ask me for coffee,” said Allison. “That’s going straight to asking someone on a date before you meet them.” Not to mention, it would be impossible for Allison to have coffee with everyone who asks.

“Wait, learn more about them, make a personal connection. And if you can get a conversation going, maybe ask for a phone call first. Don’t open with coffee because busy people get a lot of that.”

Ask and Offer

In the Tech Ladies community, Allison tries to keep the ask-to-offer ratio equal. If you’re just starting off in your career or changing careers, “the hard thing is that you don’t have something great to offer, yet.” When Allison was new in her career she used to offer copyediting services to people she was reaching out to cold.

Sure, “it’s pretty rare that anyone needs anything proofread,” she admitted. But “even if they don’t take you up on it, it does show that you’re thinking of this as a two-way relationship,” she said. “You see this as a beginning of a great networking relationship.”