How to approach principal investigators for internship/job positions What would you recommend as the best way of approach principal investigators for internship/job positions? I'm undergrad, with a planned graduation this winter and I want to get some experience before grad school.


Should I try 'cold' messaging? I want to go abroad and I'm not well networked there.
I've been on exchange and performed rather well. Can I use this experience to my benefit?

(Somewhat less important) Ideally I'm looking for research experience in Computational Neuroscience. I already have some research experience, I've done graduate work and I majored in cognitive science and mathematics but I come from a Liberal Arts &amp; Sciences college. Will my LAS background be seen as a disadvantage?
The absolute best way to approach someone to work in his group is to be recommended by another researcher in his field, preferably someone he has heard off previously. So, either a big name or someone with close or overlapping research interests.

So, I would advise you to approach some of the professors in the field you are interested in, at your current institution, and ask them if they know a research group or a professor meeting your criteria. Try to be flexible when you discuss possible names/places with them, to gather a relatively large list, even if you later decide against some of these names. Once you have decided on a few names, either you can get your professors to contact them for you or, barring that, you can contact the abroad PI and mention your shared acquaintance.