Email Signatures for Students Searching for Internships or Jobs

By: S. David Ross, Senior Associate Director

As you think about communicating via email with potential employers, alumni and other networking contacts, consider creating a personalized email signature to showcase your professionalism and attributes that differentiate you as a candidate.

What information should you include at the bottom of your email in your email signature?  Here are some ideas:

Begin with your name.  This may seem very obvious, but for those who are more comfortable using a different name than their legal name, you can signal that here.

List your institution and school (if relevant).  While including the university name is a given, you may want to specify which school within the university – especially if that aligns with the type of job or internship you want to pursue.

Adding degree information may be helpful.  Particularly in fields where your specific degree is a requirement for the jobs or internships you want to pursue.  Similarly, majors or concentrations may be worth noting here.

Involvement in specific academic, research or honors program.  Some examples at Penn include Huntsman, M&T, VIPER, LSM, Ben Franklin Scholars, Joseph Wharton Scholars.

LinkedIn and/or website URLs.  For quick access to information on your background, you may want to include your LinkedIn URL.  If you have examples of project or other work that is relevant for the positions you want, you can also add a link to your website.  Other options can include social media links depending on the content and relevance – as long as they are professional!

Contact information.  The best phone number to reach you can be helpful to include – although you may prefer to simply restate your school email address as an alternative

Other considerations:
– Keep in mind that some emails may be viewed in plain text – so you may want to avoid using icons or images that will not display properly in plain text emails
– If you have several things to include in your email signature, including a divider between entries may help utilize space more efficiently across the email

Finally, don’t feel compelled to include all of these examples – pick the options that are best for you given your experiences, interests and pursuits.

Author: David

David Ross is a Senior Associate Director of Career Services for Wharton undergraduates and occasional blogger for "Penn & Beyond."