Email Etiquette

We thought it would be a good opportunity to say a few words about email etiquette. Here are some top tips on how to manage emails and although they may seem blatantly obvious… you would be surprised how some of these rules can go out of the window when we are under pressure. We all do it and you are certainly not alone, so be this a lesson to us all.

Double / triple check
Now that most of our interviews are happening via Zoom these days, it has meant that a lot of the candidates and the clients are having more means of contact before signing on the dotted line, so to speak. We are noticing that you… the candidate, are being beautifully efficient and polite by sending a charming email, thanking the interviewer for their time, although sadly this is biting many of you on the, well let’s leave that bit up to your imagination! Sending an email to the wrong person, cc’ing in the wrong person, grammatical errors or even just a careless spelling WILL jeopardise your chances of getting the job. In the world of Zoom interviews, everyone’s emails are shared before the first interview has taken place so it impossible for us to police. We ask that you double and triple check the email that you are sending, if in doubt ask your aunt, your neighbour or even your dog to read the email. That one silly and tiny mistake could be your downfall.

Subject Lines
Now this is a question that many of us ask, do you or do you not put a subject line… that is the question. It’s a tricky one, many people manage their inboxes with a subject line. This can be when searching for an email in your inbox or trying to remember a project that you did way back when. They introduce your email and yourself or even what the email is about. And finally on this topic…  loose the exclamation marks – no one likes a shouter!!

Overly friendly?
Well this is something we will happy raise our hands to doing but there has to be a limit to how colloquial you can go. A well-crafted email with the right tone is a very hard task, even Shakespeare would have struggled. There is so much room for you to either gain a hugely successful working relationship or to cause potential confusion, insult or even offend. Something to be very aware of is trying to use funny sayings or British colloquialisms which only the Brits will understand, as they can be hugely misconstrued by colleagues or clients in overseas office. An emoji which is becoming more and more common must be used sparingly but it can also help guide the conversation – but please don’t put them in your thank you email 😉.

All of this is food for thought and I am sure that we are missing 100 other things, but we thought this could be a nice little reminder to pay attention to every aspect of your emails long or short and the most important message to everyone is – to remain professional.