Sometimes college students write their contact information without realizing that they will be judged based on how professionally they write it and on how they respond when they are contacted. You don't want to let this happen to you. You want to make a good impression every time that you write your contact information on documents for prospective employers (such as on resumes and job applications) by writing your contact information professionally. You also want to continue this good impression by responding professionally when the employer contacts you.

Use the guidelines below to ensure you present your contact information professionally and respond professionally when you are contacted:


Address

Use your mailing address
Unless it is specifically stated otherwise, use your mailing address. In most cases employers want your mailing address so that they are able to send you correspondence through the mail.

Use proper capitalization
Make sure you capitalize the first letter for all proper nouns in your address. Therefore, every word in the street name and the name of the city should begin with a capital letter. If you write out the name of your state, begin it with a capital letter. If you decide to abbreviate the state, use 2 capital letters with no periods.

Be consistent
You will want to write in a consistent format everywhere within the document. So, if you abbreviate the state one place on the document, do so everywhere.

Telephone

Be consistent
When writing your phone number, select a format to write the phone number and use that format throughout the document. The most common format for phone numbers is to use the parentheses around the area code and a dash between the prefix and the last four digits of the number.

Voicemail
What does your voicemail message say about you? If an employer gets your voicemail, you want to make sure that it leaves them with an impression of you as a professional.

Answering the phone
Speak professionally when you answer your telephone. Make sure that anyone who may answer your telephone knows that you may be receiving an important call and to answer professionally.

Email

Have a professional username
Give potential employers an email with a professional username. Professional usernames are usually derived from your name such as jane.doe or jdoe.

If your email username is unprofessional, sign up for a new email. There are many free email accounts available and you can often have your email forwarded into your preferred account.

Use business letter format
When writing and replying to email messages, do so professionally. Treat your email messages to prospective employers as business letters. Be sure to conclude your email messages with your first and last name.


Use the guidelines above to help you make a good impression on employers when you are applying for employment. It is important to make sure you write your contact information in a professional manner and to respond professionally when employers contact you.