Sending Networking Emails: From Work or Personal Address?

Pretty self explanatory question. I'm reaching out to a mixed bag of alumni and people further up the food chain in my specialty. I am torn between the officiality of sending these emails from my work address (not to mention the ability to template effectively)... and the safety/security of sending them from my personal address.

As a little background, I am pretty close with the tech support back office lead, and I know our emails are not monitored for content. We scan attachments for sensitive info, but that is all. So getting "caught" networking (as if that can't be spun into a good thing) is not a problem. Not to mention the email itself isn't like "OMG MY JOB SUXXXX GIVE ME A NEW ONE PLEASE BRO". I have received these emails and I still laugh (and then forward to select friends) when I receive them. So don't worry about that either.

 

I use my work email. Makes it more legit.

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 

I still use my personal email for networking. After initially emailing to their work email, I always ask for their personal email to be used as default email, going forwards. The advantage of that is when you leave your firm, you don't need to email all of your contacts and the same goes for your professional contacts (when they leave their firms).

"I am the hero of the story. I don't need to be saved."
 

I meant as the email of origin (i.e. should I email FROM @work or @personal).

Great point about transitioning to personal email though. I will start migrating conversations with people I've started a nice rapport with.

Patrick Bateman would eat Eddie Morra's lunch (and probably his brains).
 

This opens up a whole new can of worms, but has anyone created a gmail JUST for networking? Any advantage to NOT using your real personal?

Patrick Bateman would eat Eddie Morra's lunch (and probably his brains).
 
Best Response
AlexanderHamilton:
This opens up a whole new can of worms, but has anyone created a gmail JUST for networking? Any advantage to NOT using your real personal?

I try to separate my professional and personal life. I have two facebook accounts, one for professional contacts and one for personal friends. Even within personal facebook account, I have privacy setting based on how close I am willing to share with each individual.

With companies like Rapportive: http://rapportive.com/, you can easily install this add-in to check your contact's social media presence. For example, if you have used your one personal email, [email protected] for all of your social media accounts, when you emails me, it shows up all the social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype and etc..) that you used. Therefore, I try to avoid running into problems like that.

I have set up my emails this way. All of them are consolidated into one main account. Within the main personal account, I can send emails from various personal email accounts. This makes it a bit harder for employers to track your social media presence.

Real Name: William Jeffrey Lee Facebook name: Bill Lee LinkedIn name: William J. Lee Personal email for personal contacts and gchat: [email protected] Personal email for professional contacts and LinkedIn sign in email: [email protected] On resume: [email protected] Facebook sign in email: [email protected]

Hope this helps.

"I am the hero of the story. I don't need to be saved."
 

I'll elaborate in my first post. If you network via a personal address you're telling the person with whom you're contacting one big thing: you want them for a job, there's no "I just want to learn about the industry" its "i hope my employer does find out i'm talking to you because i want to quit, and you're getting me a job". Personally I find that rude.

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 
Oreos:
I'll elaborate in my first post. If you network via a personal address you're telling the person with whom you're contacting one big thing: you want them for a job, there's no "I just want to learn about the industry" its "i hope my employer does find out i'm talking to you because i want to quit, and you're getting me a job". Personally I find that rude.
Couldn't agree more!

Heavily leaning with the work email route.

Allows for some nice templating (should be a word), in my instance there is extremely low risk (or punishment) for being caught, and Oreo's point is great about what sending the msg from my personal email really says to the prospect.

Patrick Bateman would eat Eddie Morra's lunch (and probably his brains).
 

What's a lunch break?

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 

Definitely don't do it. Firstly, no one is more likely to respond because you use your firm's email - if anything, it's the opposite. Secondly, if you do get found out, it is a really stupid thing to lose your job over. Thirdly, if you do leave this place, everyone will have your firm email and not your personal email, and consequently you'll lose contact with most of them.

 

At my bank, all emails are stored for 7 years and random emails will be sent to our manager for review.

Don't do it.

-------------------------------------------------------- "I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcom
 

I was actually using my work email to communicate with other companies when I was looking for a job. If you are licensed they will be watching your emails. Needless to say it was pretty funny when I was questioned about not liking where I was working anymore. I quit a month later haha.

If anything I would use the company directory as a way to fill in the gaps, find out the reporting structure, whatever. Then if you quit you will have the information at your fingertips.

 

I'm not explicitly asking for interviews/jobs/internships via my company's email - only to show interest in certain sectors and request coffee meetings locally. Is using my firms e-mail still a bad idea?

 

You are networking with the goal of landing another role, so yes this is a bad idea. Use your personal email and schedule coffee meetups without company knowing. I actually recently switched to a role I exactly wanted and through networking (mainly cold email), I always used my personal email (Companies track everything).

Authored by: Certified Corporate Development Professional - Director
 

Really a nonissue. I've had identical response rates from alumni/non-alumni. People who take the time to take your call, in my experience at least, actually don't discriminate based on what school you go to. You either get lucky and land on the type of "banker that gives back" or you don't. I've actually gotten further in interviews from reaching out to non-alumni.

You speak in in varying levels of verbosity.You often adopt the typing quirks of others as you find it boring to settle on styles.
 

Use either the school or work emails. Personally I'd go with school for most of them UNLESS you have a work experience in common. The example that will apply to the most folks (out of any example I could use) is that using a .mil address to reach out to a vet is just one more thing that helps communicate that there's a shared connection before he decides to read it.

One other tip you can use: don't just search for alumni. Go to LinkedIN, pick a company you want to network at, and click the tab for employees. Once you're there drop down to advanced options and input "past company" and set it to the company you work at. It's a good way to find more contacts.

 

I think it might be seen as unprofessional, looks like you are networking on your companies time. Not sure but could also be an hr issue. Are you emailing them for just a chat or advice? That's probably safe, but about specific jobs or something I would steer clear of using work email.

 

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