Saturday, 14 July 2012

baked byVeerle Pieters

Not sure about you, but I don’t really like emails from people asking if you can Skype or “chat” with them to discuss “a project”, without properly introducing themselves or the project. I try to figure out the company from the domain name of their email address… but usually it’s a Gmail address. I wonder if they really think they’ll get a “yes sure” answer to that. :) It’s pretty basic advice to always properly present yourself so we know who you are. Secondly, give a short description of the project you’d like to discuss. Even better, if you are in the discussion phase, make sure you have well-prepared documents that you can share.

I often get emails from people who would love to “work together” with me or my company, which is great, but some of these emails are really vague. They often end with “let me know if you are interested” without actually offering or presenting anything concrete. They always expect you to “present something”. I don’t want to sound pedantic, but if people approach you like that, than they should not expect you to do their homework, right? It’s like they think you’re doing nothing, just waiting for their email… I believe it’s just a matter of being polite, and efficient. This kind of vague email communication is equal to a pure waste of time since you have to send emails back and forth a couple of times, asking questions etc. just until you might receive the email that you should have had in the first place. So it’s important to be clear and to the point, while introducing yourself and your project via email. Don’t expect people to answer positively if you don’t properly tell who you are or don’t make the effort to properly describe the project, or idea of working together.