Slashdot Mirror
Is Your Email Address Holding You Back? (wsj.com)
Whether you're freelancing or on the job hunt, don't let a poorly conceived online handle limit your career prospects A quick glance at any group email confirms what recruiters and hiring managers know too well: Not everyone sheds their adolescent email addresses when they enter adulthood, instead maintaining allegiance to digital monikers based on the music, videogames and contraband they once held dear. From a report: Though rebranding yourself online can be a pain (as those who've been through the ordeal of changing their contact info know), the practice is often better for your career trajectory, said Chris Swanson, a career and college counselor at Bremerton High School in Washington state. "It's just like the idea that a handshake and eye contact makes a good impression. That's the first thing that comes across someone's desk." Even so, many Americans still use curious handles for professional exchanges, either by virtue of inertia or nostalgia or because they've never had an employer-issued handle and don't know any better -- they only know Dave Matthews rules.
[...] It might be ironic to send missives from @aol.com, but it doesn't suggest an exceedingly tech-savvy candidate. Actually, "It weirds me out," said Ms. Moore. "Why are you still using AOL? Gmail is definitely the winner." Don't even get her started on Hotmail. When updating a resume it's a good time to evaluate if an email address seems dated, especially if applying for a tech gig.
[...] It might be ironic to send missives from @aol.com, but it doesn't suggest an exceedingly tech-savvy candidate. Actually, "It weirds me out," said Ms. Moore. "Why are you still using AOL? Gmail is definitely the winner." Don't even get her started on Hotmail. When updating a resume it's a good time to evaluate if an email address seems dated, especially if applying for a tech gig.
If someone is still using an AOL email address, so what? I know of several successful business which use AOL addresses.
People like Ms. Moore who are "weirded out" by what email domain people use are the problem, not the people applying for positions. Thinking the latest and greatest is the only thing which matters has brought us the abomination which is Windows 10 or the nearly walled and welded garden of Apple.
If these people are more worried about what email address someone uses rather than their qualifications, that explains the sorry state of affairs in the tech industry today. Flash over substance.
Recruiters, being whom and what they are, are less likely to think
I deleted the extra words you put at the end for you.
I've seen fairly innocuous ones that are nonetheless unique, and a quick Google search shows these people are {furries, swingers, potheads, anarchists, involved in political groups who actively oppose our line of work, survivalists, conspiracy theorists}. In general, we try to evaluate talent. If you're applying for a niche or high-end position, we'll likely look at your ... hobby ... as a novelty.
However, if you're applying for something more entry level, at the very least we will question your judgement. At worst, we might think you're a little too weird.
Ever not hired someone because of their email? Nope. Several on the above list I remember because I was all 'I can't believe I hired Bradalicious!'. It is hard, though, when forming a culture fit assessment to exclude such impressions, for good or bad.
Also, it's fun to state sometimes the background company contacts via email, is 'analrapelover1972@yahoo.com' still a good email?
A gmail address only tells me that you don't mind Google parsing your emails and collating data on you. I'm not sure why an employer would want that but they don't seem to mind too much themselves.
I work and have worked with some well known and / or high net worth individuals, and more often then not they have an AOL address, as they started using it in the 90s and just just kept using it as they were comfortable with it, and no one ever gave them a good enough reason to switch. (these are obviously not tech industry people)
For myself I did go by a childhood nickname for many many years and it actually stuck in the workplace because I have a very common first name and we had to deconflict.
Now that I work for myself I have dropped it, and I use my personal domain with POP/IMAP on a hosting server with my website, keeping only two weeks of email on the server. Like some people here I'm not interested in having all my email exposed to the Google apparatus.
It'd be interesting to see in what light personal domains are seen in now, not that it matters or affects me at this point. (firstnamelastname.com type format) Before it was a must have piece of real estate, now many people just use a free email service such as Gmail and few people have personal websites anymore.
I'm not sure why an employer would want that
Perhaps because obsessive paranoid people don't get much work done.
My wife still uses an AOL email address... and why the hell not?
It still works just fine; nobody has a problem reaching her - she hasn't had to make anyone change an address book in 20+ years.
She connects to it via IMAP with a real mail client, and has been doing so for at least the last 15 years, and POP3 before that.
Having an @aol.com address has zero reflection on function, form, appearance or anything else of her email... it's, after all, "just" an IMAP server. No reason to change whatsoever. What's the benefit? Believe it or not, the AOL IMAP servers are pretty stable - no more or less so than any other service. So, no technical or feature upside to doing so.... Why go through the hassle of changing?
job hunting purposes and never use it elsewhere. If you do, you'll find that your professional email will land on a zillion of spam lists and you'll be bothered by recruiters even years after securing a job. By keeping it separate, recruiters also won't be able to find your profiles on the Internet and possibly jeopardise your application efforts.
The reality is that is pure ignorance on the interviewers part, having ancient email addresses connected to those domains often means a long history of involvement with internet, I literally only just ditched an ISP account I had used for nearly 30 years. I do many interviews and not once have I ever given a shit about their email address. However nowadays the ignorance of some interviewers probably does need to be catered for, doesn't mean you have to change anything though, just register a new domain/email address just for those situations. If you are reliant on your domain name and email address to obtain an interview you have other serious problems anyway.
And I couldn't give less of a toss what the email address is.
My job is to match skillsets and personality to a role. Before sending a CV on to a company I strip contact details anyway. So the hiring company doesn't have that as a baseline. And if there is an email that I think will cost the person I advise them to create another one.
But the recommendation to change it never comes on the 2nd half of the email address. It's always the first. @aol, @hotmail, @rediffmail, who cares? Bigknockersgg@gmail.com got advised to use a different one because she was going for an HR role and the company would have to send the offer letter there.
Seriously who knows what setup people have behind the scenes anyway. An @aol might be in use simply because it is the email address that they have been giving people for the last 20 years. It could potentially all being forwards to a Gmail account anyway.
It depends what is the job.
Once bubbly head recruited asked me why you do not have Facebook account or at least professional web page? ....
My answer? My employers are paying me for protecting their data. Why I should show poor care about my data? It created that big question mark over recruiter head
and smile on my future boss face
I am quiet back end guy making sure that private things will stay private. ...
Even convinced my boss that it is worth to invest in professional physical security
Remember S&W beats 2 factor authentication.
A gmail.com address can also that you wanted a stable, long-term email address with high availability and good spam filtering, and fewer political implications than most addresses.
Recruiter = Person who still applies to work in a job that was replaced by computers 25 years ago and they didn't actually notice
I have a simple response to recruiters when they say :
Them : I have a great customer...
Me : No, you don't. They left it up to a relative stranger to track down leads instead of searching LinkedIn or Monster or whatever else. You have a customer who doesn't actually care enough to use Google.
Them : I have a great opportunity for you...
Me : No you don't. Companies don't use recruiters when they want serious candidates, they use recruiters when they are looking for meat. They get their serious candidates through personal networking and personal recommendations. You would never hire a candidate for a "Great opportunity" through something as anonymous as a recruiter.
Them : We're hiring 17 great people for a project...
Me : Good luck! You're attempting to build a team without any real knowledge of how they will work together as a team. You're actually throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping some will stick. If you're hiring 17 more or less random people for a project, most of those people are basically just desperate and if I were there, I'd have to do all their jobs for them. You'd be better off hiring two or three known assets and have them bring their own people in. In reality, if you're hiring 17 people at once, you should actually be outsourcing the project.
There are many things to say to recruiters... my dad was a recruiter back before the Internet. Back then, to look at jobs outside of your local area, it was the only way to go. Once the web came around, recruiters were basically people who couldn't find a real job for themselves and now are trying to do it for someone else.