What Does Your Email Address Say About You

First impressions are important when it comes to job seeking, and an email address can make quite a first impression. Often times, the email address is the first thing a hiring manager sees – before even seeing your name! Before you send out your next resume, consider what your email address alone might say about you. Do you “appear” professional?

As most job applications are sent via email these days, your email address alone can play a huge role into whether or not your resume is opened. I have heard numerous stories from hiring managers about applications getting tossed simply because of someone’s email address. Often times, email addresses at face value appear to be spam and are never even opened. Email addresses like “sexykitten0007” or “bigmuscles”, for example, might be automatically filtered into a spam folder by an email server because of word content.

The good news is that hiring managers are quite straightforward in what they believe makes up an “unprofessional” or unappealing email address. While it may sound harsh that most hiring managers critique email addresses, it does happen because they do create a first impression. Below are 7 deadly email sins to make sure to stay away from so you don’t end up in the “unprofessional” pile.

Wrong Name: John_smith@....com (when your real name is David Jones)

Don’t confuse the reader from the start! Is your name John Smith or David Jones? There is no reason to have the hiring manager ask this type of question at the start of your resume.

Fantasy Name: Invisibleman@....com

Are you applying for a job or are you auditioning for a video game?

Creepy Name: collegestrangler@....com

Given the fact that over 80% of companies now run background checks on potential employees, there is no reason to give an employer the impression that you may have a criminal record.

Sportsperson: tigerwoods50@....com

This might have been ok when you were in high school, but not in the workplace.

The numbers: 998877665544@....com

Confusing! You are just asking for someone to send an email to the wrong place.

The Crude Name: hairychest@....com

Not a good first impression. Also, many of these email addresses contain words that will usually get filtered into the spam folder

Confess love email address: bonjovilover@....com

Again, you are applying for a job, not a role as a groupie.

So...what should you do? Stick to the basics. The best email addresses will contain your full or partial name, followed by either characters or numbers. Think about how most workplace email addresses are set up – most of them contain a combination of an employee’s first and last name. Try to mimic this – a professional email address represents a professional job candidate. Don’t give your reader the wrong impression!

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Comment by Sandra McCartt on February 17, 2012 at 11:19am: Maybe we should start referring to stupid email addresses and automated tweets as tickets to dumbassisland.com

Comment by Kyle Schafroth on February 17, 2012 at 3:00pm: @Sandra - Done; I'm not going to enjoy a personal laugh whenever I see one and make that mental note.

It was sad, but not surprising when I was in college and had friends with some...well, ticket to dumbassisland.com email addresses. I didn't get why they never used just their university assigned email address - First.Last Name@....

To echo the comments of others - it scares the daylights out of me the variety (being career level, industry, etc.) of 'experienced professionals' that have spent so many years 'driving results, and creating industry first whatevers' (is it obvious that I hate buzz word littered resumes?); yet can't figure to get a basic & professional email address.

If you're 13 and on MySpace - fine, I'll let the ridiculous email address go; but just like everything else I feel there's a point where common sense should say, "I'm an adult...get it together".

Comment by Amber on February 17, 2012 at 3:29pm: It is amazing some of the ones people use. I also used to work for a company that had an applicant system, and the applicants did not know we could see not only their user id but the password they had selected - oh, boy did that knock a lot of people right out of consideration!

Comment by Gordon Basichis on February 17, 2012 at 4:34pm: Well, we have had Fantasy Island, and we have had Survivor. I am sure there is plenty of room for the reality show, Dumb Ass Island. Where the chronically rejected are ushered for retraining in business protocol and while we're at it...grooming habits. I mean, really. Or where they can live out their delusions as viable candidates.

Comment by Andrew Hanneman on February 17, 2012 at 6:26pm: My favorite more recent one is sexyitalian4u@hotmail.com I still use it as an example of what not to use when I talk to candidates.

On a side note, am I the only one that does "searches" for them on social media websites. I am shocked, surprised, and often lead into rolling bouts of laughing at some the of the stuff people put out there!

Comment by Bonnie Jeffers on March 6, 2012 at 9:06am: Great post and great comments! It is amazing how many people still do not realize this simple point. I think my favorite inappropriate email address was unfaithfulwoman@...com. I'm still shaking my head about that one. Perhaps we should start a collective blog and put all of the best emails together. Do people not realize that email addresses are FREE?