Using custom email addresses to filter incoming emails
For me, placement application season is in full swing. Currently, I am looking for a 6-month placement next year.
Part of applying for a job is dealing with the large volume of emails coming into my inbox. To make this process more organised, I have found an interesting method to filter application related emails.
This methods uses a little known feature in gmail (but can be found in other email providers as well). In gmail, periods in the email address do not affect the destination of the email. For example, emails sent to any of the following addresses are directed to the same inbox.
When applying for a job, I use one of these variations in the application form. Then, to track and categorise this email, I created a filter using this tutorial .
With my email address which is 18 characters long, a period can be placed in 19 different positions. That makes 524,288 different email addresses! With that many options, I might consider creating a system to track more information such as month applied or the company name.
Using a subaddressing which is appending a plus and arbitrary text to the email address is also an option. Examples of that are seen below:
However, this method is quite well known and companies are known to remove the string after the plus sign automatically which is why I chose to use the period method.
Thanks for reading this article!