This is topic Oh NO! (or: the amazing screwups that technology makes possible) update: question! in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.
I'm about to graduate and start looking for a job in a very competitive market. About a month ago I was lucky enough to get to have lunch with some of the people working at my Dream Company. When I got home, one of the people there had sent me a really nice note and mentioned that it'd be good to have me working there. I was so excited!! So I sent back a response (this is over PM on a web forum) right away. Or so I thought. Last week I sent him another PM asking about jobs, thinking that this was my second PM to him, right? Well... I was looking over my outbox this morning, and I don't see that first response I sent him. I remember writing it, I swear I remember sending it, but it's not there. My sent messages from all the days around it are there, but it's not. The most logical conclusion is that I wrote it, but was so excited about that and everything else going on that I closed the browser window before sending it.
OMG. Which means that not only do I seem incredibly rude for not even bothering to write back in the first place, but my "second" message asking about jobs was totally out of the blue. And even ruder!
Wow. I can't believe I did that. I don't know what to do now. I don't want to send a third message explaining all this, cause oof, it's so incredibly lame.... but it kills me to think that all this time he might have just figured I didn't even care enough to respond.
[ September 09, 2006, 08:25 AM: Message edited by: Zeugma ]
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Ai. That sucks, Zeguma. Wish I had some advice for how to fix the situation.
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
Yeah, I can't think of anything. An explanatory PM now would seem desperate and creepy, but I may never get a response from him now.
Wow, I bet this is going to be a day that I look back on 10 years from now and say, yep, that was the day I blew it. While I'm cleaning out the grease traps at McDonalds.
Man. Why doesn't life have an "undo" button??
Posted by Stephan (Member # 7549) on :
Get an address, and send him a hand written thank you card.
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
Hatrack's Google ad suggestion is that I start researching wills. Greeeeeat. Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:Why doesn't life have an "undo" button??
It does, but it's more like a hard reset without an offline backup.
Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
On the other hand, glitches like this are familiar to everyone, and very unlikely to outweigh the qualities they saw in you at that lunch. An explanatory PM doesn't have to give all the gory details, just humorously poke fun at yourself and move on.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Everyone's done it. Honestly. Send the guy a PM explaining what happened, thank him, and chances are good he'll understand.
That's my vote.
And yeah, use humour. Humour's good. Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
Ah, okay, turns out he responded to my work elsewhere on the site. Okay, so maybe I'm not totally screwed. I'll send him a nice, lighthearted, "oh and by the way....." PM now.
Thanks guys, this has really helped. Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
Last night at 2 AM (techincally this morning I suppose) I was writing an email my best friend, and it was kind of a personal email ... nothing really bad or shocking in it, but it was friend to friend. And her name is right next to the name of the mom of one of my other friends ... and yeah, I sent it to both of them. I mean, this was really stupid because I should've just looked up and seen two addresses, but nooo. So I had to stay up even later writing an explanatory email to her and then another email axplaining to my friend why there were two addresses in the "To" box.
Overall though I think it was good, because I've been trying to get into contact with my other friend for a while now and failing, and I was gonna call her mom eventually anyways, so this kind of forced me to do it. But yeah ... I was kicking myself.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
A little while ago, I accepted a job and was waiting on the offer letter. It never came. I e-mailed and said I was excited and could make definite plans as soon as I got the offer letter. Nada. So, after two weeks, I gave up and took another job.
The day I was supposed to start, I got a concerned phone call asking where I was. Um, I never got the offer letter. She insisted that she'd sent it twice, but I know I never got it. I said I was sorry, but I had started another job at a different company. Please keep me in mind for future assignments, but I never recieved notification.
About a month later it occurred to me that the e-mail with the offer letter attached probably contained the word "offer" in it. How much do you want to bet that my spam filter caught it and deleted it before even reaching my spam box?
For this I blame advertisers for twisting the meaning of the word "offer". Asking me to buy something is not giving me an offer, and because of it, there was that disaster. *sigh*
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
That's exactly why email should never be relied on for that type of thing. The company should have followed up any emails with a phone call to make sure the email made it.
And if an offer letter is supposed to be something official you'd think a hardcopy would be standard as well. I bet there's still a lot of grey area as to whether emails are binding.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I agree. It's part of why I don't feel too bad it didn't work out.
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
I've had even weirder email problems when I know some emails never arrived and I didn't have my spam filter on so there was nothing in place to delete them. That's why not receiving a reply by email will get you a phone-call for me.
Oh, and probably the only thing I like about our university's mail system is that you can have messages that demand a confirmation. If you don't receive it you can assume they never got the mail, so at least you know where you stand.
Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :
Not so Corwin. I never respond to read receipt. If and when I read an email is no business of the sender.
(oh and this is in no way tied to your university's email system.)
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
That's also why one should not set up his or her spam filters to automatically delete spam. A person should manually check it. Takes time, yes. Pain in the butt, yes. False positives happen, and that's why spam filters should not be relied on in this fashion. In my opinion, kat, what happened was not the sole fault of the company emailing you.
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
The newspaper I work for has a way for people to submit things like announcements, news tips, etc., on the Web site. So, this woman submitted information on her parents' 50th wedding anniversary. So far, so good. She put the information there, and the photo was fine to use.
Then she submits another item saying she never got a confirmation that we received her information. Ummm, we don't do that. But, since she asked, I sent her an e-mail saying that we don't normally do that, but since she asked for it, here's confirmation that we received her information.
It was bounced by her e-mail (Yahoo!) as spam. Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
Okay, so it wasn't as bad as I thought, and I was able to casually apologize.
So now I have another question... he's offered to hand my application directly to a recruiter, so I'm going to get it off in the mail ASAP! It'll take too long to hear back from him if I ask, so I'm just going to wing it... what's the best way to send a letter to a particular person at a big (maybe 1000 person) company, if all you have is the company's address? Can I send it to the company ATTN: Namey McName, or should it be ATTN: Namey McName, Department of Redundancy Department? I'm thinking I should be as specific as possible, and hopefully it'll find its way to his desk. Does that sound about right?
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Yes, be specific. Addressing it to
Att'n: Joe Schmoe Department of Redundancy Department
is perfect. If it's a large company, then the newb in the mailroom will misfile it given every opportunity. Count on stupidity and do all you can to combat it. Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
Okay, great! So that makes the address 5 lines long, is that ok?
Company ATTN: Name Department PO Box City, State, Zip
Sheesh, makes me wish I could re-take the address-writing classes in second grade! Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Yes, a 5-line address is okay. They kind of frown on 6, though, so if you have a building and a suite number, I generally put those together:
111 East Main Street, Suite 1234 Anytown, NY 12345
And happydancing on the update!
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Looks fine, Zeugma, and good luck!
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Glad this is working out!
Good luck!
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
Thanks everyone! It's sent, I'll let you know how it goes!
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