A THREAD

THE SILENT BENEFIT OF AN ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE: MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

This is my personal experience from using e-signatures in my emails for a few years now and the silent benefits it could bring.

Scholarship applicants please take note:

The sort of e-signature is the one used to sign off emails. Without boring you with particular defintion.

I have attached a screen shot of the two e-signatures I currently use to sign off my emails.

While there are obvious benefits of an e-signature, there are silent benefits that slide past us.

I intend to itemise a few which was premised on my daily DM correspondence with scholarship enthusiasts on Twitter.

Some benefits of using an e-signature in emails or other correspondence are:

1. An E-signature conveys a message about your professionalism and coordination. Please note that not using one does not mean that you are not coordinated. An e-signature amplifies that for you.

A few people have sent me DMs here on twitter and in the excitement of trying to pass their message, they forget to mention their name. While this is not an issue for me because it is just a chat, I will always want to address them with their name...

However, their twitter name might be *Sexy President of Lagos* (just an example). Note that communication is strengthened if proper introduction is made. Each time you send a DM to ANYONE, never forget to sign off your name at the end.

Imagine sending an email to someone without your name, how does the person know who it is? For scholarship applicants, this is particularly important. You do not want a prospective supervisor to think that you are not coordinated even without opening your attachments.

2. It makes your email look appealing: This point is simply for the show and aesthetics but remember that everything you do when searching for jobs or scholarships is all marketing and you need to put your best foot forward.

Imagine if a potential employer or supervisor is impressed with your e-signature and then opens your CV and credentials and notices they are top notch too. Your chances might improve.

3. E-signatures unconsciously invite the receiver to click: This is particularly important for scholarship applicants and job seekers. Recently, I sent an email to someone which was totally unrelated to a job search.

Few hours after I sent the email, she called me and said she has spent some hours on my personal website and she was immediately offering me a job. I had to remind her that I was a PhD student and could not take up the job until after my studies.

Please note that she could access my website because it was on my e-signature.

In 2019 while looking for a supervisor. I contacted one of the supervisors in a prestigious University in London but after few weeks without a reply, I got a notification from my LinkedIn profile.

It was shocking for me that the prospective supervisor had viewed my LinkedIn profile. Fortunately for me, it was already well packaged.

A week later, this prospective supervisor replied and accepted to supervise me for a PhD. We still keep in touch.

My assumption was that he clicked on the LinkedIn link on my e-signature. Please note that he could have searched for my profile but I will like to believe it was easier for him to click on the link that actually search for my profile on his own.

Do you notice the point I am trying to communicate here? I am sure you do. As a scholarship applicant or job applicant, there are many things you cannot add to your CV but you can add to your website or LinkedIn profile.

It could be that what captures the attention of the employer or supervisor is the 3 months internship on your LinkedIn profile which is not on your CV or perhaps what you did not think is important.

An e-signature silently invites people to view other profiles you hold in the public domain. Although this is not always the case, this could maximise your chance and opportunity.

I have just highlighted only 2 of the opportunities which came to me because of e-signatures.

Having mentioned this, I have a few suggestions on what you can add to your e-signature if you decide to use one:

A. Social media links/handles: Please use the ones that you want your employers or potential supervisor to see. I use all of mine as seen

B. Professional/research handles and links such as LinkedIn, Google scholar, Research gate etc. This is important if you are searching for scholarships and research opportunities

C. Address
D. Phone numbers
E. Personal website
F. ETC.

Please note that there is no rule anywhere that says not using an e-signature will minimise your options, I have just used my experience to communicate the silent benefits.

Most email domains provide the facility to add an e-signature. Please utilise it, it does not hurt.

I hope this helps you in some way.

Regards,

AAP

#AAPTalks

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