That’s “Mr. Boyle” to You   

Job applicants using e-mail can get a little too chummy.

The worst correspondence I ever received from a reporter looking for a job began like this: "Hi Patrick."

Oh, wait. Maybe the worst was the e-mail that came with no clips attached, but with the direction, "Please see my bio and work at www..."

or maybe it was the e-mail written in all lowercase letters...with ellipses for punctuation...just like a note to your friends....

There were more like that in the batch of e-mails sent to my trade newspaper this spring when we advertised--in print and online--for a "senior reporter/editor." Like editors around the country, I'm getting more and more job applications by e-mail. And like many editors, I'm disturbed by how the informal and chummy culture of Internet correspondence has infected job inquiries.

Honest, I'm not big on formalities. It was against the grain for me to have the girls on my daughter's softball team call me "Coach Boyle" instead of "Patrick." When interns at work address me as "Mr. Boyle," I tell them they'll be fired if they do it again.

But a more formal standard has always applied to initial correspondence with people who might hire us. We usually wouldn't call a prospective boss "Sue" until she says, "Please, call me Sue."

Yet while those who sent résumé-and-clip packages by snail mail stuck to "Dear Mr." and "Sincerely yours," many of those who e-mailed their material sent not so much cover letters as "cover notes." They addressed me by first name, signed off by first name or had no salutation or sign off at all. Some were two to four sentences long, showing an investment of several seconds. Some gave no information about themselves but asked questions to figure out if my newspaper was worth applying to.

These came so routinely that I began to think, "Maybe I'm an old fart." So I talked to editors and recruitment coordinators at some dailies, where I figured applicants would be the most careful.

"People seem to be a lot looser with e-mail," says Cheryl Butler, director of recruiting and hiring at the Washington Post. She recalls one cover note that not only addressed her as "Cheryl," but "the tone was just as friendly as if they knew me. Real buddy-buddy.

"I prefer that people are more formal in their approach."

"Here's one," says Dan Herrera, assistant managing editor of the Albuquerque Journal. "It begins, 'Hi Dan.' "

Who would open with such a line? Amy Sorkin. She's a freelancer whose e-mailed inquiry about our senior reporter ad began, "Dear Patrick," and ended with, "Thank you, Amy." Sorkin later explained via e-mail that she takes a "casual" approach because "it is the one which I feel truly represents me." (Yes, she's in Los Angeles.) Her actual cover letters are "a bit more formal and professional," but she adds, "I hate to think that an editor wouldn't read what is in my cover letter, or wouldn't consider me as a candidate for a job, simply because I didn't call him or her Mr. or Ms."

Freelancer June Bryant--the one whose response to our ad started "Hi Patrick"--wrote this via e-mail about her informal approach: "The other editors who have voiced their annoyance about this trend, how creative and outside the box are they?"

What really turns off Joe Grimm, recruiting and development editor at the Detroit Free Press, are the electronic applications addressed to no one in particular--obvious boilerplate material fired off in batches. "If a person has spent less time applying for a job than it will take me to reject them, then I won't bother" reading the attached résumé or clips, Grimm says.

There have always been clumsy job applicants--I worked with one reporter who applied for other jobs using our newspaper's letterhead and envelopes--but the Internet seduces us into faux pas. Someone who takes the trouble to compile a package of clips with a sharp-looking résumé and letterhead is unlikely to start off, "Hi Dan." But e-mail culture eschews formal greetings, and even punctuation and spelling. E-mail makes it easier for us to quickly apply for many jobs--but also makes it easier to make mistakes.

At USA Today, Betty Anne Williams (who until May served as recruitment editor) occasionally got e-mail applications from reporters who hadn't changed their letters to reflect the organization they were writing to; some of them asked her for a job in television.

Like me, Williams didn't appreciate another common element of e-applications: asking us to visit the reporter's Web site to see clips. One applicant, Kelly Lobdell, a recent college grad from New Jersey, e-mailed to me that job applicants send links for their clips because it has become standard practice on most campuses. "My professors often send me links to class-related material.... I have found it is easier to click on a link rather than open a Microsoft Word attachment because my computer is rather slow and links don't bring the threat of viruses."

Fair enough. But I want you to send me your best three to five clips, not ask me to rummage around your Web site for relevant material. "That's irritating, because they're asking me to do extra work," says Butler of the Washington Post.

The one time I clicked on an applicant's Web site, it opened with an autobiography in which the second graph was about her accomplishments as an amateur tennis player. Double fault.

So what's an applicant to do? Send attached clips, then provide a link if you want. Consider also sending the résumé and clips by snail mail--the electronic versions sometimes get garbled when they're opened. And take the advice Butler gives to students about applying for jobs electronically: "Be just as careful if you're doing an e-mail as if you're doing it by mail. Don't be familiar."

You'll know you did it right when I say, "Call me Patrick."