What Email Address Are You Using For Your Job Search?

professional@email.com

Are you using a professional email address for your job search? An email address that is not outdated? One which identifies who you are? An email address that is easily deciphered even when hand written?

I’m sure we can all agree that an email address such as sexykitten@, beerking@ or gonefishing@ lacks the professionalism expected from anyone who is serious about managing their career. Get rid of them or use them exclusively for the singles sites.

Dots, dashes, underscores: Unless you are an extremely neat printer, it is possible that you’ve added your email address to a list in the hopes of receiving some important correspondence that will never be sent. Is it a dash or an underscore or maybe that line was supposed to represent a dot? Don’t leave anyone struggling to decipher your email address. For those of us who require reading glasses, a neatly typed email could still present a problem with the use of symbols which are smaller than letters.

You are known as George Brown but you created an email address cbrown@. This was done because you wanted to confuse people? I’m going to send the email to gbrown because I’m sure I must have made a mistake when I entered it as cbrown@. One more email that you will never receive.

What were all those numbers George added to his email address?

I just received an email from latvicus@. Since I have no idea who it is, I’m going to delete it. How was I supposed to know it was George Brown? His middle name you say?

It is completely understood that a common name requires some modification to obtain an available address so a middle initial or full name will be necessary; GeorgeLatvicusBrown@ or georgelbrown or georgezbrown. No, your middle initial is not a z but does anyone else know that? It still enables anyone looking at it to recognize that it is in fact George Brown. The George Brown that introduced himself at the last networking meeting you attended. But who was gb1234@hotmail.com?

If you are using Hotmail or AOL you’ll need to update to a new address. Those continuing to use them are dating themselves and perceived as not keeping up with the times.  @gmail and @rogers are both very popular today. Did you acquire the domain for your name or business? If so, you will have access to create email addresses such as, george@georgebrown.com or martin@aneliteresume.com.

What email address are you using for your job search? What does it say about you?