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Does a Lame E-Mail Address Really Matter?

Posted by kdawson on from the america's-oldest-luddites dept.

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?"

3 of 1,049 comments (clear)

  1. Actually yes -- in some cases by weave · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If it's a technology person, that's a red flag. I'd expect them to at least have their own domain name. It doesn't cost THAT much and looks far more professional.

    Heck, even my cat has her own domain name.

    If it's a non-tech field, meh, I don't care that much. But I have to chuckle when I see a small business with a website and their own domain name, but still using @comcast or @aol on their business card for email.

  2. Re:yes by TheLink · · Score: 5, Interesting

    On my CVs I use:

    <recipient tag>@<tag>.<mydomain>

    For example if I'm applying to Google it could be something like:

    googlehr@google.mydomain

    That way if my CV gets passed around later on, I might have an idea of who did it.

    My CV is also typically in html. It looks about the same on most browsers, but depending on the circumstances the reader might see different content. I might also get notification that someone is reading my CV :).

    So far I guess I'm lucky that it hasn't stopped me from getting jobs :).

    --
  3. Re: easier to have a webmail address by webreaper · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And more importantly, if you have a domain name you're not tied into the webmail provider OR your ISP.

    I have firstname@lastname.com as my email address (yes, it's a bit generic - ha!). All my email accounts on my domain are consolidated within a gmail account, but now they allow me to properly use my own SMTP server via GMail, I can completely invisibly do this. So nobody sending mail to or receiving mail from me knows it's all done by Gmail.

    Not only am I completely decoupled from my ISP, I'm also decoupled from my mail provider. If Google does something I don't like, or something better comes along (unlikely, but possible) I can switch my email instantly at no cost. Likewise, if I'm unlucky enough to have my mail suspended for some reason, again, I'm not at GMail's mercy.

    Complete lack of reliance on mail provider and ISP is the only way to be sure.