You’ve refined your resume, crafted the perfect cover letter and polished your LinkedIn profile, but you're still not getting responses to your job application submissions. The problem may not lie in your qualifications, but rather in your lack of a professional sounding email address. Learn how upgrading your email address can improve your chances for landing the perfect position.

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You’ve refined your resume, crafted the perfect cover letter and polished your LinkedIn profile, but you're still not getting responses to
your job application submissions. The problem may not lie in your qualifications, but rather in your lack of a professional sounding
email address. Learn how upgrading your email address can improve your chances for landing the perfect position.
Easily Ace Your First Impression. If you’re submitting your application by email, your email address is the online equivalent of a first
impression, giving off signals about you – long before a hiring manager decides to visit your website or open your resume. In some
cases, your email address may appear before a manager sees your full name.
While this can be an intimidating thought, it’s actually great news because it means you can give yourself a job-search makeover
without much time or effort. Taking a quick ten minutes to obtain a new, more professional sounding email address can pay off by
resulting in dozens…or even hundreds of better first impressions with potential employers.
Choose a Simple, Clear Email Address. I once worked with a candidate who made the mistake of filling out an online application
and including an email address that featured the phrase “partygurl.” The company, having lost confidence in her decision-making
skills, passed on hiring her and opted for a different candidate.
If you’re still holding on to an old address from your younger years – one that features your high school superlative, includes a lucky
sports jersey number or expresses your love of pizza – it’s probably time for an upgrade.
In my years of experience placing qualified professionals with companies, I have found that simple email addresses featuring a
candidate’s full name or first initial and last name (such as Janedoe@domainname.com or jdoe@domainname.com) are the least
likely to stand out as red flags. Standard email domains can be appropriate, but take caution with popular but outdated domains like
aol.com and hotmail.com that might make you seem out of touch – especially in tech industries.
Take Your Email Address to the Next Level. A great job seeker’s email address can convey more than just professionalism. It can
pull double duty as a smart branding tool. If you have a professional website and a domain name, it’s fairly easy to secure an email
address that includes that domain name. Even if you don’t currently have a professional website, you can still purchase a domain
name for the sole purpose of including it in your email address. Submitting an application from janedoe@janedoe.com or
janedoe@expertwebdesigns.com gives you an added boost of brand focus and polish.
What other advice can you share to help candidates select the best professional email address? Let us know in the comments below.
Why Your Email Address Matters to Your Job Search
by
Beverly Dennison
Senior Executive Search Consultant – Manufacturing