5 Things that should be in your email signature

Gone are the days where applying for a job means printing off your cover letter and resume and putting it in the post box. Today, much of it happens over email.

With email, the main message serves as the cover letter and your email signature serves as your sign off plus contact details typically found on the cover letter.

Sending an email to apply for a job is not the same as sending an email to a friend where you may simply sign off as “– Matt.” Even if your resume includes contact information, you need to provide a professional email signature.

An email signature has a vital role. It makes contacting you easy and efficient for an employer.
Including an email signature is especially necessary when you send your resume as an attachment versus pasting it to the body of the email. If the resume is the only place you include contact information and the email gets forwarded, the attached resume may not always be included. The person receiving the forwarded email will therefore not have information readily available on how to contact you. It’s also inconvenient for the employer to have to open an attachment before they have your contact information. Make contacting you fast and easy.

So, what essentially should you include in an email signature when applying for a job? The basics include:

1. Your full name
2. Your phone number(s)
3. Your email address
4. The URL to your website or blog if it is meant for professional use
5. Your LinkedIn URL

But, before you go ahead and list the items above make sure you’ve cleared the following first:

Is your email address professional?

Use an email address containing your name or following a theme appropriate for your field. The domain for your email should also be professionally appropriate. And by this, we don’t mean to use your email address from your current employer. That is a definite no-no. Think of the impression it leaves a potential employer if they see an email from your current work address to apply for a job or an email from hotbabe@... or …@lazydude.com. It is easy and free to create a new email with Gmail.com, Yahoo.com and many others.

Is the content within your website and/or blog appropriate to the field you are applying for and is it up to date?

Don’t bother including URLs to a website or blog if there is no relevance to the position for which you are applying. Also make sure the site includes updated information. You want to show that your site is active and live; not something that has been sitting there stale.

 

Is your LinkedIn profile available for view publicly, and updated and blooming with information on your experience, skills and capabilities?

If the employer contact is not part of your connections or networks and you have your profile settings on private, no one will be able to see it. Having a completely updated profile page will also help an employer better understand how you may be a good match for the position and company. Recommendations you have on LinkedIn are also a great way to impress employers.

Other bits of advice on email signatures:

Make your font style the same as the email body text. This ensures a professional and consistent appearance.

Avoid graphics. Graphics are unnecessary in an email signature. Your message is the most important so don’t take attention away from that by adding graphics. Other issues with graphics are it may not always appear correctly if the recipient is using a different email software program. Graphics may also appear as attachments, which creates two major issues: 1) if you have essential information like a phone number as part of the graphic, the individual will not see it unless the graphic file is opened; and 2) any important file that should be opened is now jumbled with graphic files, making it difficult to find.

Just remember the purpose of an email signature is to help make contacting you easy and efficient. And if you are able to add relevant links to share information that expresses to an employer how qualified you are as a candidate, that’s an added bonus to the email signature.

 

 

Don Goodman President of About Jobs is a nationally recognized Resume Writer and Career Expert, featured on 3 of the Top 5 career portals, and quoted hundreds of times in print, TV and radio. A graduate of the Wharton School of Business and Stanford University's Executive Program, Don has helped thousands of people secure their next job and can be reached at 800-909-0109 or dgoodman@GotTheJob.com