Reading Response for Week 2
I honestly didnt know that there were so many rules and etiquette (netiquette) about sending emails. But after doing the reading, I can defintely see how people may break some of the standards by accident. I know I like emails that are straight and to the point. And it does bother me when people take ridiculous amounts of time to respond to my emails. Also, since most of the time I use my home (parent's) computer, large attachments or pictures are just annoying. I thought that the reading proved very useful, even if only for a review, for all of us about to enter the professional world. The last thing we need is to not be given a chance because of an email error.
While I am on the topic of "Netiquette," I found the article about the boss's rude and threatening email to be quite interesting. I have to wonder how he thought that his unprofessional would stay within his company. Communication was obviously not one of his stronger qualities. Plus, with some people being so easily offended, this email should have never even been an idea. I think this proves that the easy way out of something is not always the best way. Im not sure how to charaterize this manager. If I remember correctly, his company was a Fortune 100 company, yet his behavior proved differently. This makes me very curious about this situation. It seems that things were running efficiently and effectively or his company would not have received that high of a standing. (unless of course he had nothing to do with the success) Because typically, the companies that make that list have a top notch managerial staff throughout.
The article titled, "Skeptical Resume Reader Tells How He Really Thinks" was great. I really enjoyed the portion about the Objective Statements. It is kind of funny how that is one of the most important sections of a resume, yet it is often not given much thought. Maybe a brief desire or want for the recruiter to get a hint of what the applicant wants, but nothing more. I like the ideas portrayed and the examples of the good and bad objective statements. I think articles like this are truely helpful because it shows us the importance of things in a real world setting.
Comments
Netiquette and rhetoric
I think we can see in the case of the angry CEO someone who felt that it would be an effective rhetorical choice to breach the kinds of netiquette guidelines that our readings discuss. Such a move would signal that he was sidestepping the presumed artificiality of business language and speaking to his employees honestly and forthrightly. You can see in more than one article that he explains his behavior by pointing to his origins has a farmer in Oklahoma (which is also my home state). He seems to be trying to contrast his own speech, which he casts as honest if overly blunt, with business speak, which must be the converse, deceptive but pleasant. However, in this scenario, it would seem that this strategy did not achieve the results that he wanted. Consciously or not, he made a choice about how to communicate his message. If we are more aware of these kinds of choices, there is a better chance that we will be able to get the results that we intend.
Objective Statement
I also enjoyed the article title, "Skeptical Resume Reader Tells How He Really Thinks." The examples of the good and bad objectives made it really clear to me what to avoid and what to aim for in an objective statement. It gave me ideas for my own resume. After the article and the other blogs I have read so far, I now understand why the objective statement is so important and how it is essential to match the objective statement to the rest of the resume. The objective statement gives the recruiter a clear idea of what you desire from the company and how your personality and experience will be an asset to their company. The work experience and education back up the objective to make you a good candidate for your desired position.
netiquette
I agree that the netiquette section was very useful. Most of the emailing I do is with friends and family and I really was unaware of all the rules and guidelines associated with email. I knew that all emails were supposed to read like letter but some of the other rules were new to me. I did not know their were limits on attachment sizes and response time to emails. That reading should really help me adapt my emails to enter the professional world. It would be a good thing to have a leg up on other students in this area also when applying for a job.
response
I can relate to what you are saying about writing emails. I seem to get a lot more out of emails that are short and too the point, and unless I know lengthy emails contain important information, I usually just delete them. At the same time, while writing emails, I tend to be kind of lazy. I hardly ever use capitalization and punctuation correctly. Unless im sending a email that needs to be more professional, say to a professor or advisor, I just pretty much type randomly. I know this one bad habit I need to break.
Another thing you touched on was email etiquette. From the articles we read this week, we know it is important to be as curtious as possible with anybody you write an email too. A boss should never use email to bash his employees. If a boss is as threatening as the one from the article who wrote the negative email about his employees, then obviously productivity is going to go down. It is hard to understand the importance of the structure of emails unless you actually have a real life example. I guess that guy learned his lesson the hard way.
Response
I also agree that the article over the ten habits was useful. I can see that in my daily life at work. Certain people get responded to much faster than others, simply because they come off cordial and timely in their e-mails. E-mails should definitely be straight and to the point. When writing an e-mail I try to use bullets and lists frequently as these formats are much easier to read and quicker to get a response.
As for the CEO of Cerner, I could see this man in a position of head of a Fortune 100 Company. I feel that most CEO's are agressive and overly driven. This was, after all, usually what put them in the position they are in. I could easily see a CEO personality blowing off at the handle and irrationaly sending a rude e-mail.
As for the article about the skeptical resume reader, I think the comment about the objective statements was amusing and informative. At job fairs, I feel that the objective is something almost every recruiter grills me about. Such as "Well, what kind of sales would you like to do" and "Why is this your objective?" A strong objective statement is key.
Netiquette
I didn't care much about netiquette before reading the text. I like to be straight and concise when writing an email too. And I think the email should be concise actually, to save the time the reader spends on it and to get a reply more quickly and efficiently. But the problem is that I dont' take enough time for reviewing and editing. And I feel that the unexpected wrong conversation could result from this. I think being short and to the point is good, but including some mistakes even small ones can make the reader feel offended since those mistakes represent that I am not concerned that much about the communication between me the addressee.Before reading the text, I just regarded those mistakes as minute ones, but it was not as simple as I thought. To get the credence from other colleagues in my future work place, I think it is crucial to be professional and scrupulous in every work I finish even in emailing. Making a gaffe is abviously not professional and skilled. And through this reading, I could be more certain how important the netiquette is.