It’s something we’ve all been guilty of at some point. Maybe some of us are still doing it. Whether you thought it sounded clever, couldn’t think of anything else or all the other choices were already taken, you, like so many others, have an embarrassing e-mail address. At least I hope you realize that it’s embarrassing.
Don’t feel ashamed – I have an embarrassing e-mail myself. Well, two of them, actually. And I still use them. In fact, I don’t plan on getting rid of them. The trick, however, is to know when and where to use these less-than-professional addresses.
Not sure what I mean by an “embarrassing e-mail address”? If you had to wear it written across your shirt every day, would it be a social disaster? Let me give you some examples that I just fabricated for the purpose of this blog:
I sure wouldn’t want people associating me with any of these digital disasters. Yikes.
But Steph, you say, I am a dark-metal lord! What’s wrong with sharing this info? Nothing, if all you’re using it for is to enter online contests and talk to friends (assuming you have any, that is).
I’m pretty sure you’d agree with me when I say that the above e-mail addresses are less than professional. And while it may be a no-brainer to some, e-mail addresses similar to those above are printed on resumes all the time. So not only are you admitting to owning the atrocity, you are hoping a potential employer will contact you through it and hire you!
I’m not saying you get rid of your trusty old e-mail address. I get it.You’ve had it since high school and you can’t part with it now because it’s how everyone knows how to reach you. But once you’re in the market for a job, it’s time to graduate to a newer, more professional e-mail address. You can have the best of both worlds by keeping your old one, too.
Would you want financial investment help from someone who would "rather be golfing"?
It only takes a few minutes to set up a new e-mail address, and this time, I would suggest using your name. Most likely it will already be taken, so try different combinations with your first and last names, and you can also choose a combination of 2 or 3 numbers that mean something to you. Check out these examples:
Fictional Joseph The Pro’s (yes, ‘The’ is his middle name) e-mail is very simple and easy to remember. It also looks smart and professional and is definitely resume worthy. Here’s another example:
Joe’s birthday is May 5th, so he added ‘55’ to his address because “JoePro@email.com” was already being used by someone else. “Joe” was also shorter and sweeter than “JosephPro55,” so if you have a longer name, you might want to consider the shortened version to keep things easy. And while Joe might’ve once been known as “Reefer Sutherland” by his friends, his potential employers will only know him by his real name, giving him a much better shot at a job.
You might have ninja skills, but unless your boss is a sensei, he won't care.
The “embarrassing” e-mail addresses I mentioned earlier reference sex, drugs, music and personal preferences. While these might be some of your favorite things, that is information that you should keep to yourself. No employer is going to want to hire someone that uses drugs. No employer thinks it’s cool that you rock out to heavy metal music in your garage. And they definitely don’t want to know that you have 12 cats waiting for you at home. They want to know the professional side of you and why you’re a good fit for the job. Don’t throw them off with too much information about your personal life.
The point of a professional e-mail is to make potential employers aware that you care about the job you are applying for. Using an “embarrassing e-mail,” is like saying you didn’t have 5 extra minutes to make a new e-mail address. Or that you don’t care what the employer thinks. Just like it’s unprofessional to show up to an interview in jeans and a T-shirt, it’s too casual to use a personal e-mail address similar to the list above.
Another aspect to note is that your new “work” e-mail be easy to type. If it’s printed on your resume that you dropped off in person, your potential employer will now have to type it to contact you. Take a look at this e-mail I just made up:
What are those characters after the ‘r’? Lower-case ‘L’s? ‘1’s? Turns out they are capital ‘I’s, but if your hiring manager makes a mistake, it looks like you might not ever get that interview offer. Make sure the letters and numbers are easy to distinguish. Also, I want to note the excess of characters in this e-mail. Do you think a manager will enjoy having to type all of this out? Doubtful. They may even decide that you’re not worth the trouble and move on to the next candidate.
It’s also not a good idea to use dashes, spaces or underscores, as those are also difficult to distinguish from one another. In the above example it’s an underscore, but if it were underlined, it could look like a space.
Now let’s talk about domain names. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, I’m talking about the ‘@whatever.com’ at the end of every e-mail address. While your e-mail might be professional before the ‘@’, what about the domain name?
Having an outdated or excessively long domain name can also appear unprofessional to a potential employer. First, here are some more made-up examples:
First, if you are still using your e-mail address from college to apply for jobs, stop. It is acceptable while you’re in school, but once you graduate, you need an update. Potential employers will automatically think you are still a student and new to the professional working world.
In the second example, nothing says you aren’t skilled at using the web quite like using the address that your cable provider gave you when your home internet was installed. There are so many other e-mail services to choose from and they are much easier to use, so why wouldn’t you use them? Your manager will wonder the same thing.
Another problem with both of the above addresses is there are way too many dots in the domain name. There should only be one: ‘.com’; anything more than that is too confusing. It would be very easy for a potential employer to miss one of the dots.
Now here’s a little tip. Out of all of the free e-mail domains out there, Gmail is probably the one that is the most well-liked in the professional realm. It’s simple, extremely easy to use, and very accessible on mobile devices. I’m not saying that other providers like Yahoo are bad, but you might not appear as tech-savvy. Some other e-mail providers are known for having poor user interfaces and being difficult to navigate. This funny chart says it all:
Going one step further, you might want to think about buying your own domain name. Some employers find this to be extremely impressive. Here’s an example:
Where's your e-mail address?
Sure, Cyrillian Brail on bone paper is nice, but...
When American Psycho was written in 1991, e-mail wasn’t exactly a “thing” that people commonly used yet. So if you remember the movie’s popular business card scene, you might be surprised to notice that Mr. Bateman doesn’t have an e-mail address on his card. But if he had, I suspect it would look something like the address above. Notice the domain name is Pierce & Pierce (the company he works for). Either his company gave him that e-mail, or Patrick took time away from killing people and bought a domain name.
A survey from Visiblelogic.com found that 70% of people prefer an e-mail address with a domain name.
If you aren’t already employed, don’t go buying a domain name for the company you are applying for. (Talk about psycho.) Instead, you could use the name of your profession, such as “accountant,” or “souschef.” Check out this example:
gonzo@muppet.com
Having a registered domain name will show that you took time to create an e-mail address specifically for work-related messages, you’re organized, and that you’re good enough with computers to figure it all out. Even if you aren’t a computer whiz, you should be able to figure out e-mail by now, and most employers will expect at least that much from you.
Buying a domain name is certainly not necessary, but it’s a nice touch. If that’s not the route you want to take, just be mindful of the e-mail service that you are going to use.
If you’re in need of a job, check out WyckWyre.com to see what we have available, but make sure you give your e-mail address a once-over before you apply. Give it a quick fix if one is due, and happy job searching!
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