Proper Planning

Do you have a LinkedIn account?  How many emails do you have posted to use?

You may want to have at least two listed: one for your current employer and one that is a personal email account. 

If you are in the job search mode, you should have a professional sounding email address that is your main email contact for employers to connect with you. Professional email addresses will allow a potential employer to know that they are contacting the correct person.  Using your first name and last name at gmail, yahoo or hotmail is acceptable.  Even if you are a huge fan of sports or another activity and love your email address that reflects that, you should not use that for your professional persona unless it is the name of your business.

By having two emails listed on LinkedIn you are saving yourself some time.

• Say for example that you have two interests for which you belong to completely diverse groups on LinkedIn.  You don't want to clutter up your work email inbox with personal interests so you could have those group notifications sent to your personal email.
• Additionally, should you find yourself down-sized or out-placed, you still have a current email address to which you can switch your primary email contact.  This can be done even if you forget to do it before your last day as long as you remember your email address and password. change your primary email address

If you have spent the time to make your profile reflective of you and your experiences, it would be a shame to lose all of your work because you have only one email address listed.

Are you in Kane, DeKalb or Kendall counties?  Would you be interested in a hands-on workshop to help you either set-up or improve your LinkedIn profile?  Send me an email at Dee Reinhardt