Why Your Email Address Matters
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You may have just updated your resume, fine-tuned your cover letter and discovered that the job of your dreams was recently posted online. You plan to reply to this job with the perfect email that will present yourself as a true professional. To accomplish this, you double and triple-check your email message, resume, and cover letter for spelling and grammar mistakes. No doubt, perfecting every last detail in your email response will showcase your work ethic and passion for your career. However, many people nowadays overlook not only the content of their email, but the effect of their actual email address.


Recruiters receive many emails and resumes each day. Chances are that they may not even bother to take a glance at the content of the actual email if the email address is “cutesy”, silly or entirely inappropriate. These types of email addresses do not come across as professional and you might as well have put “Do not take me seriously!” in the subject line. It is highly recommended to create an email account that you use solely for your job search so employers’ responses don’t get mixed in with your personal emails.


The rule of thumb is to keep your professional email address as simple as possible. One of the best ways to do this is to include some combination of your first and/or last name in the email address. If your name is very common, try to add a middle initial or a couple numbers to the email address. As a word of caution, avoid including many numbers in your email address. This will make your email very long, complicated, and hard to remember. Another common mistake for people is to put years in their email addresses. This may inadvertently age yourself or make it seem like your email address is out of date.


In addition to your username in your email account, make sure that the domain your email is from is appropriate for professional correspondence. Two of the most common sites that offer free email addresses are Gmail and Yahoo. If you own a domain, you may also send email from that address if it is an appropriate site.


Overall, creating a separate, professional email is a simple thing to do to make your job hunt easier and will go a long way in helping you make a great first impression.