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A career in ITES industry: Module 6

    

E-mail Etiquette

Varun likes to chat with his friends online. He is always sending and receiving mails, greetings, etc. His friends call him "Net freak". They said that he would not make it in life — he is not qualified to do any job. But they were wrong. When Varun completed his graduation, he applied for a job in the IT-enabled sector. He immediately got it, and very soon, he started climbing the corporate ladder. 

What made Varun effective in his job? His skills – the skills that he used while sending and receiving mails to his friends. He used the same skills here and enhanced them. 

For many people, e-mail means just writing a letter online. They are not aware that there are certain rules they have to follow while writing online. These rules are collectively called 'etiquette'. 

Etiquette reveals that you
· care for the feelings of others;
· are interested in creating as few problems as possible in any situation; and
· don't wish to appear rude, ill-natured, uncooperative, or aggressive.

Well, let's get back to Varun. While Varun sends an e-mail he ensures that

· the content is relevant to the recipient,
· he is polite in his letter,
· the text used is formal and without irony. Smileys such as :) or :( to indicate facial expressions are used sparingly, 
· the 'Subject' line is relevant, 
· a brief signature is given in the e-mail message to help the recipient know who has sent it,
· the recipient of the e-mail is told beforehand whether any attachments have been sent with the message
· the message is not in BOLD type, because he knows it is considered rude and improper, and that 
· the language in the message is cordial.

If we ask him to tell us what NOT to do, he would say:

· Don't reply to an e-mail message when you are angry, as you may regret it later. 
· Don't keep the mail on your server longer than necessary, especially large attachments. 
· Don't copy out an entire, long message just to add a line or two of text such as "I agree". 
· Don't over-use punctuation such as exclamation marks ("!") as these are meant for emphasis. In particular, avoid more than one exclamation mark, especially if your e-mail is quite formal. 
· Don't send irrelevant messages, especially to mailing lists or newsgroups. 
· Don't send excessive multiple postings to people who have no interest in receiving that kind of mail. This is known as "spamming". 
· Don't send chain letters or "make money fast" messages. There are several hoaxes that spread viruses. 
· Don't criticize people's spelling, it is considered petty. Many people have no way of running a spell check on their messages and, therefore, make typographical errors. 
· Don't "flame" people by sending them abusive e-mail messages. 
· Don't make personal remarks about third parties.
· Don't use 'SMS' type of abbreviations which others may not understand. (E.g., CWT – Complete Waste of Time. Tell me, how many of you guessed it right?)
· Don't use an over-elaborate signature on your e-mail message. 
· Don't mark things as urgent if they are not, because when your message is really urgent, it may not get the attention it deserves. 
With dedication and right attitude, Varun established a career for himself in the ITES industry. 

You can make a career in the ITE Sector too, if you have the basic skills. You can develop these skills by practice. Most of the major companies have established technical help desks and customer support divisions. Communication has become increasingly vital — phone, e-mail, e-fax — have all become very common. With the increase in e-mail communication, etiquette in writing mails also becomes very important. Not only in this sector, e-mail etiquette helps in all fields. Well, you have been reading about ITES for the past few weeks, now that you have an idea of what this field is all about, have you started seriously looking for a job? 


Continue.. ITES module7

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