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Does a Lame E-Mail Address Really Matter?
theodp writes "Over at the Chicago Tribune, freelance writer Nancy Anderson makes an embarrassing confession. It's 2010 and she still has an AOL e-mail address. 'You've got to get rid of that AOL address,' her publicist sister told her five years ago. 'It's bad for your image.' Image, shmimage, Anderson thought. 'If I do good work,' she asks, 'does my e-mail address really matter?' Good question. Would an AOL e-mail address — or another 'toxic' e-mail address — influence your decision to hire someone?"
They will make judgements based on email addresses. They may be able to rationalise them. The rationalisations may or may not make sense but they will still make judgements.
You can either change human nature or change your email address.
Domain? No. Username? Yes.
I really don't care if someone has an AOL email address, though I work in a non-tech industry, so it may be different for me. However, the username is important. Here in DC, if you're straight out of an internship and you still have an email along the lines of drinkingfiend01@gmail.com, that's a negative mark. Similarly, a friend of mine who works in HR in San Francisco gets resumes all the time with emails the likes of johnissogay@whatever.com. Yeah, it's SF, but that's still not work appropriate.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
Depends. I've done a good few external hires over the last few years, and while I'd never actively sift on the basis of e-mail addresses, there's no denying that an outlandish one can make an impact (and probably not the sort you wan to make).
I wouldn't particularly care about an AOL address. I don't honestly think that any address which conforms to the firstname.lastname@isp.com format (or any other varation including initials, dots etc) will set any alarm bells ringing for any sensible employer.
However, there is one type of e-mail address that does cause me concern. This is the obvious "naughty" one. I've actually seen job applications listing addresses like partychick33@... or drunkenmick@... These do not give a good impression. Is it unfair? Probably. After all, there's nothing wrong with going out and enjoying yourself. However, using that e-mail address for a job application does imply that you have a problem when dealing with boundaries.
To sum up; a potential employer is far more likely to be put off by what comes before the @ in your e-mail address than by what comes afterwards.
It is terrible that someone would judge others by something as simple as an email address. Yet we all do it. *@aol.com instantly kicks in my "dumbass...." reflex, and I'm sure it does for most other nerds. Worse yet, can you image applying for an IT job with an aol email account? Right or wrong, it would be looked down on.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Well, when a stack of 100 resumes is sitting in the in box, the first thing you have to do is weed them down to the three or four you're actually going to interview. The first 80 get tossed because the applicant isn't qualified. That leaves 20 who "may be" OK. Some will then get tossed because they're ugly, or contain spelling errors. A toxic email address might be a reason one ends up in the discard bin.
It's all going to depend on the person doing the hiring. If they have that "AOL == toxic" mindset, you lose. Ask yourself if you are willing to bet a future job hanging on to your oldtimer@AOL.com address.
John
I see applications from people all the time that send in resumes with stupid email addresses. Right or wrong, we judge on this.
Commonsense (and most recruiters or professional resume polishers) will tell you: Get a nice, professional-looking email address. Your.Name@SomeBusiness.com can work (though be careful of that, since if you leave your job it may go away). Your.Name at somewhere neutral (yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc) works well. "Spicysluttybarbie@cheapdate.com" isn't going to look professional and unless you're applying for work as a stripper, isn't going to help you.
An AOL email address, today, has you attached to a sinking ship. Right or wrong, people are going to judge by that. And right or wrong, having an AOL address will indicate to people that you aren't very good with technology, which does make it harder for you to convince them you can match the job's skills requirement later.
My advice? Set your AOL address to a redirect, create a nice new, neutral/professional address, and go from there.
A domain name and simple email plan from most registrar's is less than $40/year. That's hardly extravagant.
Well where I work, we did in fact throw a number of resumes out the window specifically because of hotmail and AOL email addresses.
But then again, I work in IT, those people SHOULD know better.
But what if they are just using those AOL or hotmail addresses as their personal spam box? Maybe they are old email addresses that they give out to unknown people/companies?
I sure wouldn't be giving someone I don't know my personal email.
You could look at this from the other direction too.
Suppose the applicant is filtering employers by using an aol address, on the presumption that any MANAGER smart enough to avoid aol addresses is probably too smart to easily sabotage and then replace after getting hired.
"His name was James Damore."
Your company is over run with dipweasels.
An AOL address is as viable as any other, and they may have good reasons for keeping it that have nothing to do with their profession.
There is not one damned thing wrong with an AOL account. You just want to think you're so much smarter, better or whatever. But you're missing one of the cardinal rules of IT: If the damned thing works, don't mess with it.
Snobs are not fun to work for anyway.
Good for the ones you rejected on such a stupid criteria. They probably found real jobs with real companies with real people.
... how such idiocy is moderated insightful as I write....
I am sure I am a the top of my game in what I do.
The only 2 email addresses I ever had are are considered by some as "unprofessional" (as in oh my good, he is not paying for a service that he can get for free! The horror!).
So, does that obtuse view of some about the world should count more than a measured approach to the capabilities of somebody?
I say no, but again, I am at the top of my game, worked in many places in different countries, and occasionally interviewed and managed a few people in some companies of certain fame, so perhaps my opinion is atypical.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Sorry buddy, don't use plural.
I will judge people based on their merits and not on puerile assumptions.
I call that "us" professional people..
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
If you already have an interview, they already want you. Turning up in a cravat and tailed coat is more than likely not going to hurt your chances at employment.
I bet they'd be more impressed with a top hat than a Children of Bodom t-shirt.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Why should i care about what service provider they are using?
What is next people? Are you going to check also if they are using an iPhone or not? The kind of car they drive? The newspapers they read?
Unless the email address is obviously offensive, I see no reason whatsoever to even be thinking about it.
Those people saying that IT people should have their own domain, honestly, get a life. Have a domain and associated website if you want to, but it is outlandish to suggest it should be a de facto thing.
I personally invest enough hours at work doing technology stuff, I have no need or inclination to be running a website at home. It is called balance, something some people around here should be aiming more for.
Personal domain a must?! For bunnies sakes ....
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I've got a Yahoo email address. Would you have been do stupidly biased against me?
JoeBloggs@(yahoo|gmail|hotmail).com are all pretty much alike IMO, but steer clear of sexy_pants_87@anything.
If someone doesn't want to pay for their own domain, and doesn't have an address provided by their university (if they went, and if they went recently enough) then there's not much choice.
I use myfirstname@mysurname.uk on my CV (and for most other things). I could also use firstname.surname@alumni.imperial.ac.uk.
Or it could say that you've had an an e-mail address for a very long time and continue to use it because it's the one everyone knows. Yes, there's an institutional bias against AOL but I can't see where using the account that you've had for years should be any factor in whether or not someone looks at your resume.
I know that one of the new 'job seeking advice rules' is to get a professional address on one of the main mail hosts but someone else said that Hotmail is an address they toss. So maybe another company has a bias against Yahoo. Or Gmail. You can't please everyone so I say just use the account you actually check and go from there.
Then again if your address is IFeelPretty@AOL.com and your name is Frank then maybe, just maybe, you might want to consider getting another address for job seeking. There are some things the hiring manager doesn't need to infer. Really, they don't.
The idea, which the "so what" crowd seems to miss, is that the candidate not only have an "equal" address, but should stand out somehow. As parent notes, it doesn't take much to get your own domain, but doing so shows you DO pay attention to polishing details and DO know enough to make those details happen - to wit, going above and beyond.
The question should not be "should AOL etc. addresses be discriminated against", it should be "does the candidate excel beyond his 'equals'?"
(Yes I do have my own domain; my personal email is my name (al la first@last.TLD). I'm amused by how hard it is for people to comprehend this, and how amazed they are when they realize it.)
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
as a hiring manger, if i see an address like the one you outlined there, the first thing that jumps out at me is 'completely unprofessional'. thats a major strike you dont want or need against you, and that you chose to overlook that or (even worse) shove in my face that you dont care is a a huge warning sign that you are going to be a trouble employee should we end up hiring you.
image matters, no matter how much you want it not to.
in this age, when you can have multiple addresses easily from yahoo/gmail/etc, why not just have a second 'professional' address for work related matters? unless youre applying for a job at a strip joint.
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
Really? Pretty much everyone with any tech savvy abandoned aol years ago. Also, anyone with any tech savvy knows how AOL is regarded. So if you apply for a tech job with an @aol, you're telling them you're either clueless, stubborn, or just totally lacking in common sense. All of those seem like valid reasons to toss an application if you need to thin the pile. For a less tech-oriented job I wouldn't consider it such a big deal, but with so many jobs requiring some level of computer usage, who wants to hire someone with AOL-level computer skills?
Would a nutritionist apply with an @mcdonalds.com email? A truck driver with an @alcoholicsanonymous email? It's just common sense.
Your example is pretty outlandish. my.name@gmail.com or joe.blo@aol.com is a decent looking e-mail. I'd say doe.blo@aol.com is more akin to slacks and a golf shirt, rather than a victorian outfit. super_sexy_stud@aol.com, OTOH, is akin to coming in with an I'm With Stupid t-shirt. That said, stifling innovation? Let's rephrase what the GP said. If something works as its supposed to, then don't fix it and go work on something new and exciting instead! If we spend all our time making minor improvements to tech that is already meeting our requirements, then we CANNOT innovate. Believe it or not, some people don't think the matter of who owns the mail server their e-mail is going to makes a huge difference in their lives.
Why is gmail better than hotmail or aol?
Ya, that logic works. That's why we didn't have a push for phone number portability a few years back too. I mean, its just a number, right? No problem to change it whenever.
Get over yourself already.
Having an AOL email address is no more an indication that the owner is for or against innovation than the colour of their skin, their gender or the cut of their jeans. You're confusing the whimsical ebb and flow of fashion with technological advance. For what it is worth, you also took his reference to not messing with things which work right out of context.
You might just as well have started your email, "Times change, people's prejudices change..."
You need to take a long hard look at yourself before you start justifying the nonsense you spout.
I think there's a misundertsanding as to how the hiring process works.
First, you get a ton of resumes in. Far more than you could interview, so step one.
Get rid of people.
The first step in almost any hiring process is to figure out which people you don't want. This is where little stupid things screw you over. Depending on how many resumes a hiring manager has, having an @aol.com email address just might be enough to get your resume thrown in the "don't bother" pile. At the end of the day they still have 30 good, qualified people to start phone interviews with, what do they care if they had 31?
.
If you make hiring decisions based upon unrelated-to-the-job things like email addresses, then you deserve the level of employees that you get. What's next, not hiring someone because the name of the street they live on is dorky?
I must agree with you. Personally I don't care WHAT the domain is on their email. AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. Doesn't matter as long as it's not obviously unprofessional (bob@naughtyschoolgirls.com would raise some eyebrows). However, your username you have some choice in and if you're going to use it on a resume, it should reflect some sense of professionalism. Choose something that is at least presentable. Use your goofy username for your private stuff.
I mean really, if the most awesome candidate in the world came in with matted hair in a Lynard Skynard t-shirt in old shots and flip-flops, he's not getting the job, no matter how good he is.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
In 2001, the majority of job applications I received started including e-mail addresses, and, surprisingly to me, the majority of those addresses were far less professional than the cover letters and resumes they were on - things like "hotbabe74@aol.com" and "stonerick@hotmail.com". How could these people not think that something like that makes an impression?
I guess the same way that the nerds of the world have always thought that a mustard stain on the collar is no big deal.
The ratio of immature e-mail addresses has dropped over the years, but the clueless still abound. I especially loved the one who gave me a link to his homepage which detailed how he was an ongoing target of the mkultra project, thanks for the heads up man.
Your email is yours, not theirs
You're saying this about Google!? . The only people that might be worse than Google in terms of data mining and user tracking is the NSA. When somebody sends you an email to Gmail, don't be confused -- Google owns that message. They're just nice enough to let you read it too.
they don't insert ads.
That's not even true. Gmail pages have plenty of text advertisements.
Don't get me wrong, I use and mostly like Gmail, but people wearing such obvious fanboy blinders towards Google's actions and motives drive me nuts.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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I will *not* consider 'partyd00d420@whatever' for a job. Sorry, just not going to happen.
Really? You're not going to consider someone because of their email address?
I gave a "silly" email address (my username at gmail) to a few companies on my CV. One gave me shit over it, and it was a place so full of bullshit corporate politics that the issue nearly dominated the interview. Another one of those places hired me, and if they regret it, they're doing their best to make me think otherwise.
I used that email address, when I had the capability to get a "professional" one, because I didn't want to work at Stuffy Pre-Judging No Sense of Humor Ltd. If they disliked my address to the point where it would disqualify me, they sure wouldn't like me and I sure wouldn't like them.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel