An increasing community of researchers in various fields of natural sciences is combining X-ray absorption with X-ray emission spectroscopy (XAS–XES) to study electronic structure. With the applications becoming more diverse, the objectives and the requirements in photon-in/photon-out spectroscopy are becoming broader. It is desirable to find simple experimental protocols, robust data reduction and theoretical tools that help the experimentalist to understand their data and learn about the electronic structure. This article presents a collection of considerations on non-resonant and resonant XES with the aim to guide the experimentalist to make good use of this technique.