Why Your Email Address Is Important

GMAIL REIGNS SUPREME

Believe it or not, recruiters and hiring managers are known to discriminate based on candidates’ email accounts. Your email address is important.  Sometimes, the type of account that you have can be a flat-out deal breaker when applying for a job. In today’s working environment, it is preferred, or even expected, that you have a Gmail account. Anything other than that—Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, etc.—is considered passé READ OLD and is looked down upon. Having a gmail account is a sign that you are current, professional, and digitally savvy. Some recruiters and hiring managers will immediately skip over a candidate if they have an AOL/Yahoo/Hotmail account. If you don’t already have a Gmail account, now is the time to make the switch. Even if you don’t want to switch over completely, set one up anyway and use it solely for job searches. You can even set it up so that all the emails are forwarded to your AOL/Yahoo/Hotmail account. Don’t let your email address hold you back!

Also, don’t let your email address NAME hold you back. For anything employment related, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use your name in the address, or a combination of your first name, last name or first/last/middle initials. Here’s a few examples:

John.smith@gmail.com

jsmith@gmail.com

john.j.smith@gmail.com

johnsmith@gmail.com

Use whatever combination above that isn’t already taken. Add a number if your name is taken, but NOT the year you are born. John.smith1950 for example—ageism is alive and thriving. You don’t want to knocked out because of your age. It is important to have your name in your address. It helps hiring managers and other employees know immediately who you are and it indicates a level of professionalism and respect. On the other hand, absolutely DO NOT use silly nicknames or dumb phrases in your address. Believe it or not, we’ve seen plenty of idiotic email addresses along these lines:

sexylexi@hotmail.com

bizkitboy99@gmail.com

getsome@yahoo.com

sweetnjuicy@hotmail.com

These are what we call “vanity emails,” and they are unacceptable to use in any work environment. Actually, they’re just unacceptable in general, unless you use them for spam or for signing up for mailing lists. Keep those vanity addresses for your own personal use. Set up a “yourname@gmail.com” account right now!

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