Responding to Every E-mail: Two Months In

You may recall my desire to respond to every e-mail. (Read here and here.) I’ve noticed recently that I’m starting to fail.

I believe that we should all respond to every e-mail. While it might be an excuse, everyone’s lack of response makes my responses seem like I’m interested.

I imagine that many of the recruiters I respond to send out 100s of e-mails every day. I’m guessing 5 people respond.

The sales guy e-mailing me to find out if I’m interested in construction services for my office… they are so poorly written, I’m not sure if anyone responds.

So When I Respond

So when I respond, it’s interest. The job requiring 3 to 5 years experience (I have 20) — *sorry, not the right gig for me — *results in a response wondering what the right gig is for me.

The construction services guy — *sorry, we’re not updating our offices right now *— insists on getting a phone call setup to discuss what they can do for our offices.

I’m out (sort of)

The original goal was to respond to any e-mail that looked like it was written for me (versus a mass mailing). I’ve raised the bar to eliminate the plethora of recruiters who probably never looked at my LinkedIn profile. I’ve also raised the bar in other areas too. While I strive to respond to *every *e-mail, some recipients get too excited when I do respond.

While I don’t set New Years Resolutions (see here), I will try in 2015 to keep responding to as many e-mails as I can. Hopefully without having to respond with no, really, I’m not interested in your job.