when applying for a job by email...

Maysie

and you know the first and surname but not if miss or mrs how do u start it?

Hi, i am interested in the job reference blah blah

Dear ms?

Its not a to taxing job but i would like to get the email etiquette as good as it can be.

cheers

book12

When I'm applying for the job by e-mail, and know the person's first and last name (either written on the advert, website, etc...), I address them by first name.

GotToChange

If for sure you know that they are female, I would by default use Mrs.

Not sure of you are doing but what it best practice is to send a separately attached covering letter and it is in that that I would use the formal method of address (and corresponding Yours sincerely to sign off).

The other alternative would be to head the email or letter For the attention of First name Last name - no title at all and then start with "Dear Madam" although that may be a bit formal.

Another option is to avoid use of their name at all - other than in the email address and - again by default and used to be accepted - address it Dear Sirs or Dear Sir/Madam.

If the email was simply used to "carry" the covering letter and CV, I would simply open it with "Good morning/afternoon" whatever.

Bloomin' email. Things are never straightforward are they?



Edited to add: I must be a bit formal compared to book12, I would never ever use a christian name on a job application. Never.

Lord_Blue

I would start with a simple..

Hello,

I am interested in....

The person already knows their name, so it doesn't hurt to start rather informally. They are very likely to be grated by such an introduction IMO.

Isobel1407

Definitely better to use their name, as it shows you know who you are writing to! I would go for Ms.

Isobel

CornishW

I think email is too new to have a formal set of etiquette rules so there's no right or wrong answer.

Like Lord Blue above, I wouldn't use "Dear..." at all but if you find that's a little to informal, you could use "Dear (First name Last name)".

I think that the way someone addresses themselves in their contact details is the way you should address them.

Regshoe

If I was sending something fairly formal like a job app and didn't know exactly who would be looking at it I would probably go for "Good Morning/Afternoon" (del as appropriate), not as clunky as Dear Sir/Madam, but more formal than "Hi".

It's what I use on formal group e-mails at work whenever "Hello all" isn't appropriate.

onlyforboards_2

Dear full name.
If you know the first name as you say there is no need for a prefix.
I would not assume they were married as someone suggests.

Any

Also a tip - if you are enclosing CV and you have Microsoft Office 2007, make sure that you save it in format readable by Microsoft Office 2000 etc. (it will be readable by ALL versions if you do that).

At our office and also my last job, we hate the 2007 version (years and years of experience of working with 2000 excel - hard to change) and also it's costly to change everyone over to new version, but people constantly keep sending us CVs in 2007 version which we cannot open.

We do have couple of PCs with 2007 on it so we do retrieve the CVs at the end, but not everyone might bother..

movingforward2010

i just save it as 'richtextdoc.'

mrluke

Any wrote: »

Also a tip - if you are enclosing CV and you have Microsoft Office 2007, make sure that you save it in format readable by Microsoft Office 2000 etc. (it will be readable by ALL versions if you do that).

At our office and also my last job, we hate the 2007 version (years and years of experience of working with 2000 excel - hard to change) and also it's costly to change everyone over to new version, but people constantly keep sending us CVs in 2007 version which we cannot open.

We do have couple of PCs with 2007 on it so we do retrieve the CVs at the end, but not everyone might bother..

Most companys that are using pre 2007 have installed Compatibility Pack free from MS.