"What email address should I use for my college student resume and job search? Which looks more professional on a resume: a personal or college email address?"
This topic came up when a college career counselor asked me:
What's a professional email address? I'm not speaking about the obvious awful ones like “screwloose.com.” One of my colleagues tells our students to use their college (.edu) email address in lieu of comcast.net, aol.com, or other common email service. The problem, as I see it, is that some students never check their college emails and prefer to use their personal email addresses. Are those personal email addresses really less professional?
There's nothing wrong with common email service addresses such as @aol, @yahoo, @hotmail, or @gmail for a college student resume and job search. Absolutely nothing unprofessional about them, as long as the name you use along with the email extension is appropriate. (No "sexydude" stuff, please!).
Best Email Address for a College Student Resume
Here are my thoughts on choosing and managing an email address for your job search.
Use an Email Address You Check Regularly.
That means either one you already check (at least once a day) or one you're willing to begin checking and will continue to check, even after you get your new job.
Use an Email Address You Will Have Long-Term.
Let's say you put your .edu email address on your resume. You send your resume to an employer and, even though you don't get the job, the employer files your resume for future reference.
Nine months later, the employer pulls your resume and emails you, using the .edu email address on your resume. Will that .edu email address still be active? And will you be checking that .edu email account to find the employer's email?
If the answer to either of these questions in "no" or "I can't be sure" then the .edu email address is not a good one to use, no matter how impressive it is right now.
Should You Auto-Forward Your College Email to Your Personal Account?
It may be possible to list the .edu email address, and have an auto-forward on that address so emails get redirected to your commonly used email account. BUT, what if the college decides to reverse its policy on maintaining email addresses after a student graduates, or changes its email redirect system, or the college goes belly up? Any of these things could undermine your email-forwarding plan. I suggest you not take that risk.
Create Your Own Email Address for Your Job Search.
Get a domain name that contains your name (for example, I have the domain, susanireland.com), and then establish a website account that has an email system. That way your email address can be something like:
firstname@yourname.com
(for example, susan @susanireland.com)
With this "smart" email address, every time you email an employer or member of your network, your email address contributes to your job search marketing because your name will appear on the list of emails in the employer's mailbox. Now that's professional!
Use Your LinkedIn Account
I hope you also have a LinkedIn account and you list your LinkedIn address in the Heading of your resume. That's another professional way for employers to contact you.
