couple reach my desk. I look at them. If they start ‘Dear Tom’ and I don’t
even know the company or the writer, forget it. Straight into the trash.
They make me mad. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but that’s how I feel.”
Sally, a business student approaching graduation and now on a job
hunt, explains that she applies for most positions online. “I hesitate to
say ‘Dear Mr. Smith’ in an E-mail, but I do it. I don’t know Mr. Smith,
so I figure it’s best to be more formal, rather than less formal.”
Sally’s right. Even in an E-mail, usually if you don’t know the person
you’re writing to personally, you shouldn’t use his or her first name.
There are exceptions, of course. A new supervisor, for example, might
send an E-mail saying hello to each of her employees and use each person’s
first name, even before she’s met them individually, to set a tone
of approachability.
As a general rule, though, it’s better to err on the side of extra formality,
rather than insufficient formality.