Before You Send an Email

If you are going to compete in the online world of job search, take note: students often unknowingly advertise their entry level job seeker status via their email address. The ".edu" extension hanging off the end of an email screams entry level. So while it's fine to use your edu address as a student looking for jobs while in school, if you have already graduated, you may want to consider updating your email address to a more generic one beyond your edu.

There are numerous free Web-based email services you can use instead. If you haven't already done so, get signed up with Mail.com, Gmail, Outlook.com or Yahoo! Mail or one of the other free email services. My preference is Mail.com, since you can choose from among several domain names (including mail.com, email.com, iname.com, consultant.com, techie.com, and others), and have a higher likelihood of your desired user name being available. The best user name is "first.last@domain.com" or, as an example: kelly.jones@example.com or even kelly@example.com (if available). Using this format, which is the most common email naming standard in the business world, will give you a more professional look when you communicate via email. In addition, you can reserve using this email address for "job search only" communication to keep it separate from your other email. You can also change your standard signature to reflect your job search. Just make sure to consistently check your inbox at least once per day.

One final note on email addresses. If you have an email address that is not professional (such as kegstands@hotmail.com or supersexy@gmail.com), now would be a really good time to either drop it or use it only for personal emails.