I had an interesting experience recently that made me question the standards of my generation. Specifically, I had lunch with a recent alum from my business school that is still looking for a buy-side job. He was pretty experienced and had been a VP in investment banking, but recently left his post (I think by his own accord) to focus on getting buy-side jobs. However, to no avail. Anyway, we met over lunch for an hour to discuss job search strategies and investments, after which he later sent me a thank you note via…text message? His note is as follows: “Nice to meet u today. Lets stay in touch.” Is this an acceptable standard? I mean, I hardly ever have 30 minutes to enjoy a peaceful lunch by myself, let alone to cut out of my office for an hour and meet some alum who’s clearly looking for a job. As a gesture of gratitude, he sends me a thank you note via text message. I mean, I get that this guy was an experienced banker and has an MBA from a good school, but I went to the same school and I think most of our graduates have more decorum than this. What’s up with people in our generation? Has this happened to any of you before? Curious to hear any other funny or bizarre stories about interviewing or networking etiquette.
Since when VP in a bank was anything special?
I see no problem with the text message. It’s the new means of reaching people, it’s time to adapt with the times. My problem is he used “u” instead of “you”. That’s just lazy and uncalled for, especially when you are a professional contact, not a personal buddy.
I laughed. Thanks for the story.
IMHO … it is acceptable to be sloppy with your grammar if you are so high up that you are too busy and it doesn’t matter. However, this is not the case. I have received some quick texts and emails from very senior Fortune 500 execs that are little more than “y” … “8)” … and “ty talk soon” or something like that. If he is looking for a job, he needs to avoid cutting corners, especially when talking to peers or prospective people that could link him up with their peeps. To be honest, I am wary to recommend someone like that to other people as I don’t know if they are going to send crap messages to my strong contacts. Finally, I’m a bit anal with grammar when around business contacts in general. It’s pretty dumb to be rash and ruin prospective relationships on sloppy emails/texts; I’m with numi on this one.
I dunno Numi… if he texted ‘u’ instead of ‘you’… then he’s probably relatively young. Give him/her the benefit of the doubt. It can’t hurt you to do so…
- You have a lot to say about nothing Numi. You are kind of like the AF Costanza 2) When I text people I use full words not “u” for “you,” etc. and full punctutation. You look like an idiot when you text like a 12 year old.
Analti_Calte_Equity – those were some of my thoughts exactly. lockheed10023 – actually he’s a few years older than me. Perhaps he realized he was more “experienced” professionally, but last I checked he was the one asking me for an informational interview and introductions to potential employers and not the other way around. Don’t get me wrong, lunch was pretty casual and all, but as former trader mentioned I think I would hesitate to open my network up to someone when I don’t know how they’d act around people I’d be introducing them to. Also I had never met this guy before and he wouldn’t know me from Adam. Blake McCallister – thanks, I like Costanza’s character so I’m glad to have achieved something aspirational.
Sure, it’s a bit casual, but you’re reading too much into this. Don’t be Mr. Snooty McStuffy. Before you know it, you’ll be the guy who mass emails your sales list to point out grammatical errors in some guy’s research report.
I think a text message is a bit casual but not necessarily unacceptable. Someone who writes a well written email or note obviously gets more points for professionalism. To me, the eye opener was texting “u” instead of “you.”. In professional correspondence, u kant du dat and expect 2 b taken ser30usly.
plus he missed the apostrophe in “let’s”. I agree, I would have been a bit put off but it wasn’t a formal interview so he probably felt that it was OK to be informal. However, since you may be able to help him in the future, he should have written a formal email and the text is too informal and gives the impression that he thinks that you are at best equal to and at worst, junior to him. I think texting people who you aren’t pretty close to already is not really appropriate particularly in a business relationship.
What if the girl you met tonight at the bar, you know, the ravishingly cute one… used the ‘u’ instead of ‘you’ in her text message to ‘you’? If she used ‘you’, would it be less flirty?
OK, I noticed from a few of you that this may be the day and age we live in, and that people do communicate via text. I can accept this. However, in the context of a professional correspondence, I still find text messaging to be exceedingly casual. Call me old-fashioned but I would never dream of sending a thank you text to a potential professional contact. It’s also ironic that while a number of you have noted that this might be acceptable, nobody else here has actually said that they have either sent or received a thank you “text.”
i want u i want u so baaaaaad i want uuuuuuuuuuuu i want u so ba’a’a’ad it’s driving me mad it’s driving me…
The text thing also doesn’t sit well with me. Can’t explain why, it just does. The “u” instead of “you” is the real nail in the coffin for me though. There’s something a bit arrogant about it, like he’s a BSD high-flier and doesn’t have time to email you cause he’s so busy, and needs to save every letter possible because “time is money”, but you on the other hand aren’t important and have all the time in the world and should really be the one to be wanting to keep in touch kind of attitude. Having said all this, I would be judging him first based on the meeting you guys had. If he was on a knife-edge, then yeah, screw him. If he seemed a genuinely good guy and was smart, then I’d be inclined to just put it down the fact that some people just operate differently.
In that context, it might be okay especially if she’s looking for a “job” of another kind…
I would not advise anyone to send a thank-u msg by text, but I would be still inclined to take it in the spirit in which it was sent, which was an attempt to say thanks for spending some time with me. If I were considering this person for a position in which business tact is a high priority, I probably wouldn’t consider them anymore. If I were considering this person (or advising them) for things where other skills were the most important, then I would base my opinion on how those other qualifications came across in our interview. And who knows, he may still surprise you with an email or a card in a few days, in which case you might feel a bit silly having worried about it here. When I think more about it, I am less concerned about the text message being too informal and more about texting really being appropriate for two kinds of communications: 1) friends coordinating activities (including lovers exchanging "i miss u"s), and 2) semi-urgent professional stuff. This person’s message was not urgent enough to fit the professional category, and it seems presumptuous that you would be close enough friends to qualify for the other. I think that’s where the awkwardness lies. But texting is the way the current graduating generation communicates with each other. I remember having to call girls I liked on the telephone when I was in high school, and then actually figure out what to say to them when they answered. Now that was scary, particularly if you cared about what she thought of you. How nice it is these days just to send a text “'sup, babe!” and get all romantical-like in 140 characters or less. Bring it on, baby!
^ Good points all around. BTW, it just seems so funny to think about the emergence of another generation. I too had to call girls over the phone in high school – hard to believe that I’m now so “old fashioned” to find it inconceivable that people ask girls out for dates via text, but maybe that’s just how things are these days.
I received a gift & sent a thank you note via SMS (no short cuts - all words spelled out in full). I got a response via SMS “You are most welcome” with a smiley at the end! Not sure about use of smileys - I only use them in personal SMSes.
[quote=“Rambus”]
I use them all the times. At my workplace senior people don’t actually like receiving/sending text messages irrespective of content and prefer email/phone call even if it’s informal correspondence (strictly non-business). I suppose its the same if you are not friends with anybody and asking them someone for a favor. However, in this case I would give the guy benefit of doubt if he had a good profile otherwise.