Netiquette IQ - The Email Interview, A Growing Process!

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More and more interviews, telephone conversations and what used to be face to face meetings are being conducted via email. What better way to give you an edge than with great Netiquette! Below is a nice, brief article to highlight a few key points, but this blog and my book book will give you many more.
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The Email Interview  -  Mihir Patkar  July 15, 2014 12:30 PM -  lifehacker.com

 In the email interview, remember to write like you talk. Eventually, you have to have a video chat where you are going to talk like you normally do. My writing style and my conversational style are quite different, and the common feedback I received in early interviews was that I sounded like two different people between the emails and the video chat. After your video chat, the recruiter is likely to go back and review your email conversations — it shouldn’t sound like it’s two different people talking.

You also need to be keenly aware of what the other person has to read every day, as we put it in the tips to writing emails that get a response:

The person sending a message and the person receiving it often have two very different perspectives — while the former is looking to include as much information as possible and has a vested interest in communicating their entire idea and the thoughts that went into it, the latter is looking for brevity, clarity, and probably gets a lot of messages just like the sender’s every day. 

Because of this, with interview emails, I issue a “10-minute review” rule. I write the full reply, save it to Drafts, and then physically move away from my computer — usually just walking around the house and doing odd chores. At the end of 10 minutes, I review the email and see if there is anything I want to change. Why 10 minutes? It’s enough to snap you out of thinking about what you wrote, but doesn’t take so much time that your interviewer thinks you aren’t prompt in your replies.

Brevity in an email is hard to judge, so one good way to check out whether your message is too long or not is to save it as a draft and then preview it on your smartphone. But only preview it, don’t write from your phone — just don’t do it! Autocorrect errors can make you look unprofessional, and you never know what kind of impression “Sent from my iPhone” will make on your recruiter.

Finally, for those who are conducting an email interview with a recruiter in a different time zone, it’s a good idea to send your mail during that person’s office hours. In an email interview, you can’t go to their office, so even if it’s a small gesture, this works as an equivalent of respecting their time and busy schedule.

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In addition to this blog, I have authored the premiere book on Netiquette, "Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". You can view my profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:

 www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki

 If you would like to listen to experts in all aspects of Netiquette and communication, try my radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo.  I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ Rider University and  PSG of Mercer County New Jersey.
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