Is this an appropriate thing to have as your voicemail message?
The correct answer is no. If you are conducting a job/internship search, you will inevitably provide your phone number. Usually college students list their cell phones because it's much easier to reach them. However, many college students also have silly or inappropriate voicemail messages as well. Employers don't like this. The most annoying, in my opinion, are listed below.
"Hello? ... Hello? ... I can't hear you. ... Leave a message!" -- This is rude, annoying, and about one hundred other synonyms for rude and annoying. When my friends have this voicemail message, I stop calling them. This is childish and thoroughly frustrating when you truly want to contact the person. Employers will feel stupid if they fall for this trick (as do I) and judge the applicant before ever meeting him/her. While this is amusing to you and maybe some of your buddies, this is not professional.
"WHASSUP?" -- Does this need an explanation for why this is inappropriate? Really? Okay, well let's start with the fact that a lot of people yell this tag line. Employers, especially those in a cubicle or close quarters, do not want colleagues hearing this coming out of their receivers when they call to schedule an interview. Secondly, this provides no information for callers. Did they reach the right person? They'll never know. Third, the beep will come pretty quickly after this greeting. Callers may not be ready and may feel uncomfortable leaving a message, but equally uncomfortable calling back after quickly hanging up. I implore you: don't do this!
"You know what to do." -- This is not rude or filled with inappropriate language. In fact, it's not terrible. But, the employer may be bewildered about whether he/she is leaving a message for the correct person.
The best type of voicemail provides the caller with your name. If you'd like, you could also list your phone number so wrong callers will know they made a mistake. Next, ask the caller to leave a message with important information, such as a number to reach him/her, a good time to call, the reason for the message, and any other pertinent information.
Hello! This is John Smith's phone, but I'm unavailable at the moment. Please leave your name and number with a short message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks!Of course there are variations to this. If you're wondering what a good voicemail should sound like, call any employer and listen to his/her professional messages at the office.
If your voicemail message is adequate, what about your email address? Is it something silly like JohnnyAppleseed@gmail.com? Or is it something inappropriate like 2cute4u@yahoo.com? How about this: does your email link to your Facebook profile so employers could easily search for you? Does your email (like AOL) have a profile connected to it? These are all valid questions to think about when providing an employer with your email address.
I'm not suggesting you simply leave your email address off your resume. Create a new email account that's appropriate and used for professional correspondence. Your Brockport email address will do temporarily, but remember that you no longer have access to this account about 3 months after graduation.
Now, the most interesting topic of all: ringbacks! Did you recently purchase Katy Perry's song to occupy your callers while waiting for you to answer? I'm sure they appreciate that, but employers don't. Many of these downloads are harmless, but anything inappropriate is obviously something to avoid. My friend had the Barney theme song as his ringback for a time simply to annoy his friends, but changed it as soon as he was interested in finding an internship. He was right to revert back to the old-fashioned ring, and you should too if you're like him! Please, please don't lose an opportunity just because you absolutely had to have the new J-Tim song! You don't even get to listen to it, so why bother?
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