Is there a legit way to fix a burned email for job hunting in 2026?
So I’m mid-30s, switching careers into marketing, and I’ve been firing off cold emails to hiring managers/recruiters from my personal Gmail. Last week a recruiter I know personally told me my message was in her spam and only saw it because she was already looking for my name. Kinda terrifying.
Since then I’ve noticed my open rates tank when I track clicks on my portfolio link, and a couple friends said my emails landed in Promotions or spam too. I did the usual stuff - shorter subject lines, removed links, no images, etc - but it still feels off. Maybe I’m overthinking this.
I was reading late last night and saw people talking about “email sender repair” type tools and general warm-up stuff that supposedly rebuilds your reputation with inbox providers. Has anyone here actually used anything like that specifically for job search / cold outreach, not big marketing campaigns?
Should I just make a brand new email, or is it smarter to fix the old one? What’s worked for you to keep cold job search emails out of spam in 2026?