[Job-Discussions] Watch Your Email, Jobseekers

[Richard Davis]

Here is a light hearted article that might help you.

*Watch Your Emails, Jobseekers*

By Dick Davis, Chair, NFB Employment Committee



Many years ago, I had a student who was looking for a job. But when he put
his email on his resume I was horrified.



It was “funky’lilmonkey at hotmail.com <funkylilmonkey at hotmail.com>”.



“No!” I said, “Don’t use that!” He looked at me in surprise. I had to
explain to him that using that email wasn’t going to help his chances of
getting a job. He did prepare a more dignified one, and he did get a job. I
don’t know if that did the trick, but it no doubt helped.



I see many resumes in my volunteer position at the NFB. While most of them
are not as exciting as my former student’s, a few are, and a few have other
issues. As a word to the wise, let me give you a short list of my thoughts
about things to do and not to do:



1.    Have a dignified email address for public consumption.
“edthepartyanimal” implies some traits that employers may find undesirable.
“Ed.Jones” doesn’t.

2.    Be careful about putting your birth year in your email, because your
age is something employers don’t need to know. “Sarah2003” is going to look
like she’s just out of high school. “Ned1950” will look rather old.

3.    Make sure your email is easy to remember and transcribe. It should
flow off the keyboard naturally, especially if you use a combination of
letters and numbers. If you or the employer get it wrong, you may not get
contacted about job openings.

4.    Pay special attention to anything in your email address that provides
information you don’t want employers to know. Is having an address on your
state NFB website going to help or hinder you?

5.    Use your employer’s email to look for work only if you have
permission to do so. Even so, applying for a new job using it implies a
disregard for your current employer, so you might want to use your personal
email instead.



This list is not all encompassing. I collect funny examples, so if you want
to send any to dickblind at gmail.com, I may share them with others.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/job-discussions_nfbnet.org/attachments/20210618/c23415ce/attachment.html>