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I'm job going to send out some resumes to apply for several software developer position. In my resume there is my mobile phone but I'd rather be reached via email, should I tell them explicitely or just remove my mobile phone from my resume?

I am asking this because a month ago I received an email from a recruiter that worked in a company that was interested on my Linkedin profile and asked for a resume via mail. I sent it to them, after a couple weeks they tried to reach me via phone (I discovered it only few days later by looking up the number on the Internet), but I couldn't answer at the time because they called in working hours (11am) while I was working at my current job. They never called back so I feel like I missed an opportunity.

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    I hate to break it to you but if they didn't leave a voicemail they weren't that interested in talking to you anyway. And if you're job searching then you need to be reachable by phone or respond to missed calls within at most 48 hours. This and this are useful reading.
    – Lilienthal
    Jun 24, 2016 at 11:24
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    It isn't rude to express a preference. It is probably unwise to ignore calls from potential employers who find that preference doesn't fit their needs...
    – keshlam
    Jun 24, 2016 at 11:37
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    It is not necessary to respond to missed calls. If they missed you and didn't leave a message, even though you left an e-mail address, it means they didn't actually want to talk to you that badly. Just add in the future "my preferred contact is e-mail" or something to that effect.
    – Brandin
    Jun 24, 2016 at 12:07
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    You can always list a preferred method of contact but be prepared to respond to others as well when you are on the job hunt. That dosent mean you need to answer your cell phone for every number you dont know, but I would make sure to check it at least once a day.
    – JasonJ
    Jun 24, 2016 at 14:02

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It's perfectly acceptable to stipulate the way you want to be contacted. Personally I don't give out my phone number, I want everything in written form because I can answer at my leisure and have a record.

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You should include on your resume only the contact methods you want people to use.1 I see plenty of resumes that have only an email address. A recruiter who wants to talk to you will send email asking for a call -- they do it when making unsolicited contacts, after all (so says my inbox).

That's for initial contact. Email is asynchronous while a phone call is synchronous, so if the other party wants a synchronous conversation, you're going to need to have a call. But with this approach of only listing the email address, you can at least schedule the call, which you will probably find more convenient. It beats getting calls while you're at work in an open-office plan.


1 This is a specialization of a general principle: only include on your resume information that you want to be available as part of the application process. Anything you offer is fair game for recruiters or interviewers to use.

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I think you should provide, both email and phone in your resume, and state the preferred mode of communication as email and availability hours for telephonic communication. It would be more professional and also increase your chances for job.

As an employer I would be fine with email for initial communication, but for subsequent discussions, I would prefer phone for being more efficient and time saving, as I can get away with multiple to and from iteration. Email will anyway be used for communicating any official information, documents or anything that should be there in records.

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From my experience in the industry, recruiters generally prefer to call first. The reason for this is that a 10 minute call easily allows you to cover the same ground as 10 emails, especially in the early stages of the process.

That said, we work the same hours you work! So a happy medium is for a recruiter to leave a voicemail or email after calling to arrange a follow-up call. If they have done either I would say you need to respond within 12-24 hours with your availability for a call to show you want a job(alot of people we talk to actually are not interested even when they send their resume, or get an offer)

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  • they want to use the phone as it is easy to "sell" to people on the phone than email, they are sales people
    – WendyG
    Sep 3, 2018 at 10:40
  • Welcome to The Workplace! This is good information but doesn't quite address the question that was asked, which is whether it's harmful to specify a preference. Could you edit to address that? Thanks. (I'm guessing that's why this is getting downvotes.) Sep 4, 2018 at 2:16
  • I agree. It is much easier to have a quick phone conversation than to go back and forth through email. That being said, I usually will contact someone by email, but only after they haven't answered my phone call.
    – DreDre0623
    Mar 1, 2019 at 21:10

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