A surprising number of job seekers instantly undermine their own credibility with a nonsense email address. Email name and job search doesn’t get any simpler: YourName@ Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or your own website is the only email address that belongs on your resume. Everything counts in a competitive job market and an address with anything BUT your name will nearly always do more harm than good.
A seemingly harmless personal email address is an often overlooked job search risk factor. You never know what kind of connotation a non-neutral email address might bring up for someone. Are you reducing your chances by having the number 44 or “butterfly” or “runnerguy” in your email address? Maybe not, but is this really something you want to take a chance on? Butterfly, runnerguy and anything besides your name simply don’t belong on a resume.
Don’t use an email address with any personal information other than your name. Not mom or brother or singer or redhead or sexy – just your name. Just. Your. Name. Nothing else, get it? Use periods and any combination of first, last and middle names, but don’t use underscore and try to avoid numbers.
Is there any reason not to create and use a JustYourName@ email address during your job search? If you don’t want to check another email account, you can automatically forward the messages from the YourName@ account to your old one. You might find that a separate email account actually makes it easier to track your job search progress. You could also add a job search specific email signature with links to your LinkedIn profile, online portfolio or other information.
Don’t use your current company’s email address. Even if your current employer is supportive of your job search (unlikely), associating yourself with your current employer could cause someone to question your loyalty and respect for company time. Again, nothing to gain here by doing the wrong thing – play it safe and use an email address at your own website or with a major provider like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo.
Make it easy! Shorter is better. One little mistake on your complicated email address and – poof – your chances are gone. The shortest, simplest version of YourName@ is truly the only email that belongs on your resume.
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9 Comments
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your opinion.
Thanks for the informative post. It helped me a lot. May the Force be with you.
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Pretty insightful post. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I had spent a good deal of my time looking for someone to explain this subject clearly and you’re the only one that ever did that. Kudos to you! Keep it up
Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!
Awesome info — thanks for the post!
last week our class held a similar discussion about this topic and you show something we have not covered yet, appreciate that.
- Laura
We recently had a client who has used her .edu email address for a long time. I still recommended changing it to a JustHerName@ a neutral provider. Unless you’re applying to the school (or the school name would otherwise help your case in some way), the .edu email could imply that you’re more focused on school than the job – which could be true, but won’t help you get a job. And if you’re an alumni, what if the boss went to a rival school?
Err on the side of a neutral, conservative email address. Ditch the .edu address when you’re looking for a job and get a JustYourName@gmail or one of the other major, neutral providers.
This really answered my problem, thanks!
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