Many of the posts on this site are based on my responses to questions sent to me by my readers. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them to me at marquis-AT-marquisparker-DOT-com.
Chances are, it’ll take a while me a while to get a response to you because I receive a lot of email messages. But, if you’re willing to be patient, you might find my advice to be helpful…at least, that’s what people have told me in the past.
Over the years, I’ve stated my guidelines for emails from readers in post after post, but people have repeatedly ignored them. So, after complaining about it over and over in subsequent posts, I’ve compiled the following list of guidelines for reaching out to me. I will make decisions on whether to respond to each email based on the guidelines below. IF YOU PLAN TO EMAIL ME, READ THE FOLLOWING BEFORE DOING SO…OTHERWISE, YOU MIGHT NOT GET A RESPONSE TO YOUR MESSAGE!!!
Also, if I choose not to respond, I won’t send any sort of notice about it. Some people may find this to be harsh, but it’s a necessary step to help me filter and prioritize the emails that come in.
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Guidelines for contacting me:
- Use the email address for this site (marquis-AT-marquisparker-DOT-com) ONLY to contact me with questions – I created a separate email address for my readers in order to track those interactions and separate it from my personal communications. As such, I only respond to reader emails that come in through that account. In the past, people have tried to contact me outside of that email address as a way to get around the queue in my Inbox, which is not a good idea. Don’t do that…I don’t tend to respond to those who do. Also, I will not respond to questions/requests that are posted as comments to posts/pages on the site…I will ONLY respond to emailed requests.
- Read through the archived entries or do a search before emailing me – I’ve received a LOT of emails from readers over the years and written entries about a wide range of topics. If you have a question, chances are that I may have written an entry about it before and you might be able to save yourself the time of writing to me by looking for it. If I receive an email and get the impression that the reader hasn’t taken the time to review previous entries, I will have a hard time responding to it.
- Do not send me reminder messages if I have yet to respond to your email – This is probably my biggest pet peeve when it comes to emails from my readers. I’ve written many times that it takes me a along time to get to emails because I address them in my off-time. That said, nothing frustrates me more than when people aren’t willing to be patient enough to wait for my response. If it takes me a while to send you a reply, don’t freak out. If your email hasn’t violated any of the guidelines in this list, then I’ll get to it when I can. If you can’t be patient and insist on sending me a follow-up email to rush me, I’ll likely delete both the original email and the follow-up…just letting you know before it has a chance to happen.
- Do not send me long emails – I’ve mentioned in several entries that I have a strong distaste for long emails because they take a long time for me to read, think through, and address. Plus, I have to be efficient with my time in order to help as many people as possible. When I see a long email from a reader, I’m left with the impression that the person has no concern for the time it takes on my end to deal with it, which is not good. I can’t really describe what qualifies as “too long” for an email because I base that on my first reaction to seeing a message. Here’s a tip to help with this: if you type out a message to me, read over it and ask yourself whether it might be too long for me to consider tackling…if you can’t definitively say “no”, then it’s probably too long.
- Do not send me emails with a lot of questions – This guideline is very similar to the previous one. Before clicking “Send” on any email to me, just ask yourself whether your message might contain too many questions or might take me a long time to respond to…If you can’t definitely say “no”, then you might want to review your email in order to prioritize your questions and ask only the most important ones. Otherwise, you might not get responses to any of them.
- Do not ask me to review and/or provide feedback on your MBA application essays (unless you are one of my MBA admissions advising clients) – For a couple of years, I would help my readers out by providing feedback on application essays, but a few inconsiderate people took advantage of my kindness, showed no appreciation for my help, and made me want to not do it anymore. I’ve mentioned this several times in my entries, but, to this day, some people ignore those messages and send me their essays anyway. If you send me an email with MBA application essays attached, I will likely not respond to it.
- Do not ask me to review and/or provide feedback on your resume (unless you are one of my career advising clients) – This is similar to the guideline above. I used to provide detailed feedback on readers’ resumes when requested, but, again, a few people ruined it for everyone. So, now, if I receive an email with a resume asking for a review, I’ll likely look past that message and move on to the next one in my queue.
- Do not email me if there is a specific time by which you need a reply – I get to my reader emails when I have time to get to them, so I can’t guarantee a response according to any timeline that a reader requires. Knowing that I can’t meet any “deadline” that a reader tries to impose, I will not be able to prioritize emails that lay out a deadline for a response, either explicitly or implicitly.
- Feel free to send me feedback on how I can make the site better – I’m all about open and honest feedback, so let me know if there’s anything I can do to make this site or the reader experience better. Just remember that the feedback and comments need to be directed to me and at anyone else. Also, depending on the feedback, I’ll likely post a new entry in response to it, so be prepared for that.
I apologize for the length of this list, but I have found that I need to make things explicit in order for the message to come across effectively. Hopefully, the posting of this list will eliminate the comments that I have to make in my responses to people about my preferences in dealing with reader emails.
Note: The above guidelines were posted in November 2009. At that time, there were several messages in my Inbox that violate one or more of these guidelines. I’ll be deciding how to handle those emails (i.e. whether those emails will be grandfathered into being considered against these guidelines) on a case by case basis.
