Email addresses speak a 100 words

The saying goes "A picture is worth a 1000 words".  I contend that your email address can speak at least a 100 words.

On your resume, you should have your name, phone number, cell phone number, email address, and if you have one, a link to your business related blog, and linkedIn account.

KCDEE recently had a booth at two area job fairs.  We were collecting email addresses from people who were interested in receiving our e-newsletter.  As I was entering the names and emails, I noticed that about 95% of the names were professional in appearance.  But, alas, there was that 5% that could potentially scare away an employer from contacting you.

The best thing to do is to make your email address recognizable to anyone who may wish to contact you about a job, contract work, or a potential business relationship.  If your name is very common adding a number to your name is acceptable.  Other options include first.middle.last@ email address or perhaps first_last@ email address, or last-first@ email address.  There are many free email services including hotmail, yahoo, gmail, as well as, the phone and internet providers in the area such as comcast, att, and sbcglobal.

Presenting a professional face on all forms of communication with potential employers just gives you more ticks in your win column.  Read more about email addresses.

What does your email address say about you?

I am responsible for adding names and email addresses to our e-news letter contact list.  I read some very interesting and sometimes amusing email addresses.  Others are pretty mundane or maybe even boring depending upon your take on the situation.

But let's discuss for a few moments the effect your email address, twitter handle or blog name will have on a potential employer or business associate.

• If you are a sports fan that is great, but what if you are a Cubs fan and the person you are trying to impress with your credentials absolutely detests the Cubs?
• You are a family man and your email says Smithfam6@ what ever service you use.  A potential employer can get a clue as to your personal life without you saying a word.
• Your email address references part of your anatomy or romantic interests and isn't quite appropriate if you are trying to do business with a very conservative organization.

The point is that you need to save those "personal" email addresses for your private correspondence.  It is very easy these days to set up a new email account on one of the web based services like gmail, hotmail or yahoo.  Try to use your first and last name so that someone will be able to identify you easily should they want to contact you.  If you have a common name such as John Smith, perhaps you can use a period or a number to associate with your name and it will still sound professional.

What are your thoughts?

Proper Planning

Do you have a LinkedIn account?  How many emails do you have posted to use?

You may want to have at least two listed: one for your current employer and one that is a personal email account. 

If you are in the job search mode, you should have a professional sounding email address that is your main email contact for employers to connect with you. Professional email addresses will allow a potential employer to know that they are contacting the correct person.  Using your first name and last name at gmail, yahoo or hotmail is acceptable.  Even if you are a huge fan of sports or another activity and love your email address that reflects that, you should not use that for your professional persona unless it is the name of your business.

By having two emails listed on LinkedIn you are saving yourself some time.

• Say for example that you have two interests for which you belong to completely diverse groups on LinkedIn.  You don't want to clutter up your work email inbox with personal interests so you could have those group notifications sent to your personal email.
• Additionally, should you find yourself down-sized or out-placed, you still have a current email address to which you can switch your primary email contact.  This can be done even if you forget to do it before your last day as long as you remember your email address and password. change your primary email address

If you have spent the time to make your profile reflective of you and your experiences, it would be a shame to lose all of your work because you have only one email address listed.

Are you in Kane, DeKalb or Kendall counties?  Would you be interested in a hands-on workshop to help you either set-up or improve your LinkedIn profile?  Send me an email at Dee Reinhardt