Jan 10
14
In my previous post on the Nework Business Card, I briefly talked about the email address I use in my job search.
In composing this post I had most of it written and then I found a couple of articles on another web site that have some pointers, advice, and comments about the email address you use that I wanted to share.
One of the articles is titled “What’s your Email Address Prejudice?” in which the author, Jason Fitzpatrick references an article, “AOL e-mail address: Is it hopelessly square to keep it?” by Nancy E. Anderson a freelance writer for the Chicago Tribune.
I personally still have an AOL email address, but I haven’t given it out or used it in a personal or professional setting in a very long time. I no longer have the AOL service either, but the email address remains free and I do check it from time to time.
I find nothing inherently wrong with an AOL address, but as mentioned in some of the comments on the posts above, it’s a throwback to ‘old’ technology. I’ve had the old Compuserve address with the number.number@compuserve.com, as well as an email address on a internet service called Delphi, (the link to Delphi used here is what the site used to look like from web.archive.org, a wikipedia article on the history of Delphi is located here. I was a member prior to 1997 but that is as far back as the Wayback Machine had a site snapshot) which is what I considered my first true internet email address, back then it was simply, firstinitiallastname@delphi.com for my email address and the service was completely text based.
Yesterday I saw another post on the lifehacker.com site also by Jason, titled “Know What Your Email Address Says About You”
After browsing through the many comments and reading through the articles, my advice below has not changed, and it seemed most agreed about not using the ‘cute’ email address names, and Jason makes an excellent point with this quote – “Like your clothing, your hair style, and your manner of speaking, your email address is part of your personal image.”
First and foremost, for those people especially in transition, you want to be able to project a positive image in your job search with whoever you interact with. My recommendation is to use something in the format of firstnamelastname@domain.com, if it’s taken it’s okay to use a number or maybe middle initial to make it distinct.
Another choice is firstname.lastname@domain.com, just keep it simple and professional, that’s the main thing. Addresses such as deerhunter22@domain.com or freakyfreddy@domain.com or sometypeofhobby@domain.com are ones that you should avoided using during your job search, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have an email address like that, but with so many different email services, making a new clean email address for your job search should be very simple.
I’ve talked to some local recruiters this week as well and they also recommend against using those ‘cute’ type of email addresses. To be more professional, especially on a resume you’re emailing or handing to someone, most recommended the firstname.lastname@domain.com or some variation of that type of format.
Even if you’re using your internet providers email, the company I use, Cox Communications, allows up to 7 email addresses to be created per account, if you haven’t reached that limit, create one there to use specifically for your job search and networking. Also, if you own your domain name, you may have the ability to create an email address with your domain hosting account such as info@mydomainnamename.com.
All in all what I found in those articles and comments is that it does make a difference what is before the @ (at) sign, not so much who the email provider is.
What are your thoughts or ideas on the type of email address that should be used? Is it ok to use “cute” handles? Have you been told your email address is ‘dated’ (ie. AOL, Hotmail, etc)? Have you been told by a recruiter or some other authority in your job search to get or create a new email address? Please comment below.