Are You Yelling At Me? (CAPS a Big NO NO)

WHEN WILL YOU CALL ME?

Some time ago, I received the above via sms from a candidate. At first glance, I felt I was being yelled at. My instinct told me she’s not in a happy mood. But when I did make the phone call, it wasn’t so. It was the CAPS she used that had given me that impression.

I asked around and noticed many people concur with me that texting or writing in caps seems to give that impression. And it’s true. Unfortunately, not many people are aware of this. And sometimes the consequences can be costly. You might lose a job offer because of that. Recently, I have a candidate who met almost all the job criteria and was about to be offered until he replied an sms to the potential employer…

DON’T CALL ME NOW.  MEETING. CALL ME TOMORROW MORNING.

In addition to his lack of professionalism, his fate was more or less sealed. 

Caps actually makes reading more difficult but having said that, it has its place though. We commonly use it if we wished to emphasize a word (not the whole page of content) to depict it’s importance. And that’s about the only usage of caps I can think of.

Interestingly, I found a handwriting analyst and he has some interesting discovery about people who “write” in CAPS.

These people do not like to disclose anything about themselves to others. They are uncomfortable talking about their personal lives — at least in interpersonal relationships. They do not want others to know about themselves. Often, such writers do not express their emotions in public.

Usually, all-caps handwriting lacks connection between letters, which indicates that the writer does not like to relate to people at a personal level. Also, such writers are quite egotistic. They hold strong opinions and it’s very tough to get  them to see another point of view. They emphasize a lot on their day-to-day lives, rather than spending some time planning their future.

Perhaps you enjoy writing in CAPS and you don’t care what people think but if you are writing to represent your professional self, my advice is to avoid this style for your own good.