I get a ton of email.  By clicking the reply button, I can reply to that email.

However, some of this email is confusing as to who sent it.

For example, if you use some clever name like Soccer Chief for your email name or just your first name and your email address is 5552541@me.com, some people may not know who sent the email without additional information.

If you are sending your contact information in an attachment (resume or cover letter), you are putting yourself at risk of not getting a reply from people who give up on opening on attachments every time they reply to you, especially if that attachment is not on every email.

Sometimes it is easier and more effective for the recipient to reply to an email with a phone call.  Not having a person’s phone number with the email makes this option slow to impossible.

To hiring managers, how people use emails can be very telling.  To draw an analogy, plants are in the ground. They wait for life to pass. An animal moves around and eats the plants and some animals even eat other animals.

If a person sends us an email to ask a question, we try to answer that email by the close of business that day.  If a person sends us an email to request a call, we try to call the person that day. However, if a person sends emails to request a call, questions will arise as to a person’s level of interest and as to their personality type:  is the person is a plant or an animal?  Do they sit around and expect others to come to them or do they go after what needs to be done and get those things done?

Emails help recruiters and hiring company’s observe a person’s attention to detail in a shifting environment.  In business emails, a person normally has a closing at the bottom of the email. The closing normally includes a cordial expression such as “Best regards,” the person’s name, city, state, phone number, and email address.  When communicating with a recruiter or hiring manager regarding a career change, the person begins to use personal email.

Many people only send personal email to people who have their contact information attached to memory.  When shifting to using personal email in making a career change, a person with strong skills for details in a shifting environment will intuitively include that information a personal email account.

Another aspect of adding a closing to personal emails is that this type of detail is an indication of a person’s thoughtfulness.  The etiquette of email is to include that information.  The location helps the recipient know the time where the sender can be reached. The phone number and email address may be the only contact information that gets through intact with the email. The name is important because it spares the recipient of having to research the sender’s identity in case the return field does not adequately identify the person or if the recipient is going back through records that may not contain the return field.
A closing to an email may look something like this closing:

Best regards,
Name
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
Email Address
Website if you have one

Other helpful contact information.

LinkedIn public profile
Twitter Address

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