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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?"
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turdeater@sexual-perverts.net
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.
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.
Am I looking for a Cobol programmer or a .Net developer?
I agree.
Sincerely
iamapizza@BySendingYouThisEmailIHerebyConfirmYourAwesomeness.com
Always proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
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 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.
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
Probably not as much as if you had your resume hosted on geocities.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
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.
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.
Hey, I've actually done a comic on this subject! I'm firmly in the "I'd rather you have a cool email address then a suck-up one" camp.
dinosaur comics
When I'm looking at a resume, I don't want to see RoxxyFoxxy@somewhere.com. Or something completely weird and difficult to decipher and type out. It's not hard to maintain a FMLastname or Firstname.Lastname@gmail.com and direct it to an address that expresses your individuality or whatnot.
Basically, I'm looking for professionalism. That means a resume with no typos or obvious errors/exaggerations ("Proficient in C, C+, and C++" is a gem that springs to mind), and appropriate attire at the interview. Having some kind of in-joke or bizarre reference or obscure handle as your username on the resume is kind of like wearing a tshirt with a weird slogan on it to the interview, although certainly not so severe.
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.
Truly, You have a dizzying intellect.
... 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.
Lame addresses:
imalamer@aol.com
wtf@sex.com
dumbass67@dipshits.org
8675309@tmobile.com
urndrarrest@fbi.gov
throwingchairs@microsoft.com
cowboyneal@slashdot.org
Free Martian Whores!
I really want an @compuserve.com email address. Retro-cool.
U WANT RETRO, GET BIFF@BIT.NET!
0xB1FF
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
"President@whitehouse.gov"
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Your mom does.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Things like @aol.com and @hotmail.com don't bother me, what bothers me is before the @ symbol. joe_middlename_bloggs@ is fine, even from things like Hotmail, but xXxXx_BuBbLe_PrInCeSs_1987_xXxXx@ is going to find its way to my trash folder very, very quickly.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
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.
*@aol.com instantly kicks in my "dumbass...." reflex,
And that was true at one time. But now it's almost like an internet antique. A retro fashion statement more than a declaration of internet arrested development.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Excellent point. The labor market is so tight these days, workers can easily dictate their place of employment based on subtle criteria like email address prejudice.
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.
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.
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
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.
As another old Cserve person (11465,1123 - note the comma - later a dot when email became popular) I would say that any compuserve people who stayed post AOL buyout deserve to be singled out ;)
Seriously though - yes. Embarrassing email addresses should not be used professionally. This isn't so much hotmail or msn or aol (provider level, like the article is about) as it is the actual address.
I will *not* consider 'partyd00d420@whatever' for a job. Sorry, just not going to happen.
An operating system should be like a light switch... simple, effective, easy to use, and designed for everyone.
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?
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.
you are a genius... I'd hire you just for that
I wouldn't hire someone with an AOL address, not for any technology job. It just shows that they're not too smart, since they pay extra every month for a useless online service primarily for email when you can get free email addresses from Yahoo or Gmail.
Now, I definitely would NOT exclude someone because they had a Gmail or Yahoo or Hotmail address. That seems rather silly, as those are the largest webmail providers, they're free, they don't go away when you change ISPs or employers, etc. In fact, what alternatives do job-seekers have for email?
1) Company email addresses: this is pretty stupid. Only an idiot would list his current work address when looking for a new job. This would be the first person whose resume I'd throw in the trash (even before the AOL users). Is this employee so inept that he doesn't know how to get an email address that isn't tied to his employer? What does he think is going to happen to this address when he leaves his job (which he's obviously interested in doing)? And what is he doing blatantly using company email for personal purposes? I don't want someone like that around.
2) ISP email addresses: another big sign that someone is not internet-savvy. Are you so clueless that you don't know how to sign up for a Gmail account (which lets you download your mail by POP if you want)? What do you think will happen when you have to change ISPs, such as if you move to another state for a job? Really, having to update your email address with everyone you know or do business with is so 90s. This is exactly why we changed to Gmail, Yahoo mail, etc., so we'd have one address that would always stay the same.
3) Other paid email services: why pay for something you can get for free, especially when Gmail works so well? Unless you own your own domain and have email through that (which actually is a good sign), this just doesn't have any advantage over Gmail et al. And as someone who's had an account with Netidentity.com (now owned by Tucows), it can be a big PITA when their service goes down for days at a time due to their ineptness. Google doesn't have this problem; when Gmail goes down for 45 minutes, it's front-page news.
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