127. That is the number of unread emails in my inbox at this very moment (Wednesday @ 2:28pm). Two meetings, a list of high priority to-do’s, and a number of phone calls to return when I hit my desk before 8:00a this morning. What’s the point? We professionals are busy creatures and as much as we appreciate the thoughtfulness of a “thank you” email when we meet you at a Career Fair, we don’t want to hear about your interest in IFRS issues. In an effort to build off the advice in the comments of Monday’s post, here are some things to keep in mind before hitting send on your thank you email to us.
Do: Keep it short, but personal. When we attend a career fair, we can meet upwards of 200 students in an afternoon. Even if 25% send emails, that’s 50 interspersed amongst our regular business inbox. Keep it short, to the point, but also relevant so it doesn’t seem like you sent the same message to every firm. Tip: reference something professional the two of you spoke about, reference to the recruiter what professional you met, or thank them for the invite to an event later in the week; something to make the connection to your brief in-person encounter.
Don’t: Regurgitate your cover letter. It’s a “thank you” email, not an opportunity to over-sell your candidacy.
Do: Triple check your grammar. Nothing takes you out of the running faster than a misspelled name or the incorrect verb tense in a sentence. Sure, accountants are notoriously bad with spelling and grammar, but leave the misspellings to the managers. When you sign off, go with “sincerely” or “regards” followed by your name.
Don’t: Make us feel old. Mr./Miss/Ms./Mrs. are all off the table. We are not our parents, capisce? More importantly, you need to put yourself on the same level as us. You want to be treated as the adult you are, so speak to us as equals. This goes for everyone up and down the hierarchy (first-year professionals to partners). We’re all on the same level when it comes to addressing us in emails.
Do: Capitalize. keep the lowercase sentences to yourself. and your texting buddies. okay? okay.
Don’t: Attach your résumé. Submit through the website like the recruiter mentioned 32 times.
Do: Keep it light. Remember – we enjoy spending time on campus and interacting with the future of our firms. We had a great time meeting you – remind us of that.
Don’t: Get offended if you do not receive a response. Oftentimes the professionals will just forward the emails to the recruiter to keep track of. You wouldn’t expect a “you’re welcome” note if you were mailing a thank you note, would you?
This is just a fancy way of saying that the senile CEOs surveyed here royally screwed up by being over leveraged in legacy commercial real estate and are forcing workers back into the office to save face to their own stakeholders.
At the same time these truant “leaders” are announcing these decisions from the comfort of their vacation homes on the other side of the country that everyone else must return to the office, they’re also talking out of the other side of their mouth when it comes time to exploit workers in the developing world for outsourced office jobs.
Remember, these are not serious people being surveyed. They’re just trying to coast to their bonsues on short-sighted decisions with long term consequences they themselves will never face because the silver wave is about to waah them all away in a few years.
I am somewhat on track with you, but I am trying to see it from both sides of the coin. It is a little hard to support the CEO’s and their careless remarks that the employee’s no longer have any power, I think if every one of them walked out on you right now you would see things in a different light. These remote employee’s are happy and enjoy their job’s and do not mind working long hours that is required during tax time because they can see their children and spouse and not feel disconnected from their families due to the long hours required by the job. My wife is one of these remote workers and she said as long as I can see all of you, it put things into perspective for her, she could see the reasons she works so hard and it gave her more focus and more drive to work as hard as she could to ensure the ones she loves are taken care, she gives her all so the company will see how hard she is working for them so that she can continue to work remotely.
At my company, the CEO has been on a jihad for close to two years now to get everyone back in the office, despite the fact that less than half of the employees now live in the same city as the office. There is absolutely no evidence that working in the office results in higher productivity, greater quality, more revenues, etc., but that doesn’t stop these CEOs from making declarations that its necessary for everyone to be in the office. Amazon has had record growth, revenues and profits over the last few years, and yet they still feel the need to force everyone back into the office for some reason. Seems like its more about power than collaboration/teamwork, doesn’t it?
But back to my CEO. Dude is almost never in the office, which all of the employees definitely notice. The vast majority of his time is spent either at one of his homes in a different state than the office, or on vacation. So, yeah.