7 Things You Should Never Include In A Professional Email

Gone are the days when applications were sent via Post Mail. Today, we have the convenience of sending Emails to those whom we are seeking to communicate with.

In that regard, here are 7 things you should never say or do in a professional Email:

Things You Should Never Do & Say In A Professional Email

1. Mispellling the name of the person or the company you are writing to

This is one of the sure ways to make the person on the other end to not like you immediately. The most likely thing the potential employer will do after you have misspelled their name/the company name  is to delete the Email without reading it. To them, you did not take time to d your research and write their names correctly.

That said, always ensure that you double check your email before sending them to avoid such pitfalls.

2. Sending an email that is clearly copied and pasted

Did you know that GMAIL automatically turns copied text into purple colour? Now you know.

This automatically tells you that person you are writing to knows when an email is pasted and when it’s not.

The harm in copying and pasting an email is that it creates room for errors such as you referring to the person you are writing to as ‘he’ instead of ‘she’.

With that, make it a habit of writing a personal, unique email to every employer.

3. Sending ‘just following up!’ emails

When it comes to applying for jobs, you should refrain, by all means to send a follow up email if the potential employer has not replied to you.

Sending a follow up email before they have responded makes the person you are writing to not like you, and it comes off as being very nagging and impatient.

In my own experience, I have applied for a job and didn’t get a reply until one month later. Sure, it might be tempting to want to write an Email to find out on the progress of the application, but for your reputation’s sake, don’t do it.

Exercise patience.

4. Reaching out to the entirely wrong person

If you are applying for a job, and you happen to get an email address of one of the employees of that company, maybe from their website, it can be tempting to email them to ask them about your application.

But this should not be the case. By all means, you should make sure that the person you are talking to is the person who handles what you are talking about.

5. Sending an email with a deceptive subject line

I have come across emails with a subject line written in CAPS, that is designed to make me open the email with the impression that it is very important, only to find out that it the email is not important at all.

Sure, we all want to be served and listened to, but you should not seek attention and be desperate when doing it.

Be professional when writing your subject line and keep it simple.

6. Sending unsolicited advice

In the past, I have seen comments and sometimes emails where people write to say that if they were in the company, they would do ABCD better than we already do.

How an employer or a company can know that the writer of the email is not writing in good faith, is in the tone of the writing.

Such emails and comments are often harsh and very rude, and this is never perceived well by a company.

To avoid this just ensure that your CV and Cover letter are excellent , they will speak for you and you don’t have to write an email to beg for an opportunity.

7. Telling your life story in an Email

Some job seekers are very quick to think that by writing their life story to an employer, the employer will be more sympathetic and offer them a job.

The harsh truth is that everyone has a story, and most people have struggled in life in one way or another.

Sharing with your employer how you have struggled to raise school fees and how you have been unemployed for 5 years is not the best way to get a job.

In the real world, it is the people who see their struggles and weaknesses as strength go get the jobs. People who don’t let their weaknesses define them. They are the people who believe in themselves, not those who pity themselves.

That said, shelve  your problems and insecurities and make standard applications like everyone else.

There you have it, 7 professional email writing tips. Are you struggling to write a professional email?