Jackie writes:
I’ve been emailing my contacts and people in my little network and I’m wondering what is best to put in the subject line. I’m just concerned that some people will just delete them right away if they don’t know who its from or if something vague appears in the subject line. Some of these people I’ve just met at various networking socials and some I’ve only met once. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks so much for all your help!
The Career Doctor responds:
First, let me congratulate you on focusing on one of the most overlooked aspects of job-hunting — building and maintaining a relationship with a group of people who might help you identify job opportunities in the future — your career network.
So, how do you email folks, some of whom you have met only once at a networking event where you exchanged email addresses?
Well, you don’t want to leave the message line blank… and you don’t want to say something that sounds like spam…
So, I would go with either just your name in the subject line or your name and a qualifier…. like University of Florida Marketing Grad Jackie Olson … or something along those lines.
Or… if you know of them from some specific affiliation with a you can put something like: Daytona Beach Advertising Federation — Jackie Olson….
I think as long as you have a couple of identifiers in the subject, you should be fine.
And just as important: Use the first paragraph of the email to remind the person you are emailing of the connection the two of you share before you launch into the rest of your email.
Looking for more advice about the power of networking — and why you should be doing it all the time and not just when you are job-hunting? Go to this section of Quintessential Careers: The Art of Networking.
