Disable the email auto-fill recipient feature

Imagine this: you just had a great networking conversation with Jane from Bain. Excited to follow-up, you send out an email with specific details about your conversation about Bain and in the blink of an eye, the auto-populate feature pulls up Jane from McKinsey. Whoops! 

One of the big issues that people face is sending an email to someone with the same name at a different firm. Many emails have the structure name@company.com, so once you start typing the first name, the "To" field gets auto-filled with the most contacted person (or the person whose email comes first alphabetically). Disable this feature during recruiting season to avoid any accidental emails.

Click here for an Outlook tutorial; click here for a Gmail tutorial.

Enable the option to retract an email

You might have been a little too quick to hit "send."  

Click here for a Gmail tutorial on how to enable the "Undo" feature. In Outlook, you have the option to recall an email; click here find out how.

Please note: it is almost impossible to recall a message in time. Sending the recipient a recall often results in a notification that you're *trying* to recall a message. Consider the implication of doubling-down on the mistake vs. leaving it alone. Each situation requires your judgment.

Another quick tip: disconnect from the internet (usually involving just toggling off your WiFi for a few seconds) while you're drafting emails to prevent accidentally sending emails that aren't ready!

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