An email message can make or break your job search with a specific organization or person. Doing email well is required and assumed. Doing email poorly is often the kiss of death.
Email Don’ts
When you are sending email for your job search, avoid making these common mistakes:
1. Don’t “blast” out the same message to many recipients at the same time.
It’s easy and tempting to put all the names into the “TO:” field on your message. But, then, it will look like a “form letter” type of message and be discarded.
If you send the same message, at the same time, to multiple addressees at the same domain name, the email filtering software may assume that your message is either junk mail or a virus and discard it.
Personal messages, customized and sent to one addressee at a time, are the most effective.
2. Don’t slip into informality.
Just because an email message is not printed out on letterhead, put into an envelope, and mailed using traditional methods doesn’t mean it’s any less important or formal. Treat email with the same kind of care you would treat traditional business correspondence — don’t send your first draft, proofread very carefully, use good spelling and grammar, etc.
