Email Etiquette: 6 Rules for Job Hunters

Posted on Dec 8, 2011 in Hiring Hub | 1 comment

Emails, just like traditional snail-mail letters, can influence whether or not you get the job. After all, email has its own etiquette and breaching those protocols can hurt your chances at your target company. To make sure you stay in the game, follow these quick and easy rules:

1. Include only business-like email addresses. I can’t stress this enough. Cute email names don’t cut it in the job market.

2. Leverage the subject line. It’s there and it can help you. Use it to address the topic of your email, e.g. “I was referred by…,” “I’m answering your ad for a…,” etc.

3. Keep it short and concise. People increasingly read emails on the go. Your subject line and message should therefore be short and fit on the preview screen, so it can be easily scanned by recipients. Think  Blackberry, iPad, etc. One warning, however: Even though you want it short and concise, leave out the web jargon. Internet slang like “LOL” is not business-like.

4. Include all your contact information. Make sure all your information is on your signature line. Include your name, email address, and phone number at the very minimum. Your contact information must be accessible and attachments can get separated from email letters. In addition, add Twitter handles, etc., when you can.

5. Attach, attach, attach. It’s easy to forget to attach a file. I’ve done it. So, attach the resume file first, before you start writing your email cover letter.

6. It is a letter, so write accordingly. Just because it’s an email doesn’t mean that it should abandon standard letter protocols. For example, open with a “Dear” salutation and close with a “Sincerely” or something similar.

We all send emails constantly. It’s so commonplace that mistakes in inter-office and even client related emails are no big deal. However, when looking for a job or presenting yourself as a professional, you must be ultra careful … or risk losing your shot at that next great position.