Does a Lame E-Mail Address Really Matter? 1049
theodp writes "Over at the Chicago Tribune, freelance writer Nancy Anderson makes an embarrassing confession. It's 2010 and she still has an AOL e-mail address. 'You've got to get rid of that AOL address,' her publicist sister told her five years ago. 'It's bad for your image.' Image, shmimage, Anderson thought. 'If I do good work,' she asks, 'does my e-mail address really matter?' Good question. Would an AOL e-mail address — or another 'toxic' e-mail address — influence your decision to hire someone?"
I don't think it will cost you a job. (Score:4, Interesting)
but it sure will make you look a bit dopey if you're still rolling with hotmail or aol.
I see usa.net is still around too, I had one of those a long long time ago too.
Now if you're not rolling your own domain, gmail or at least a respectable ISP in the very least your co-workers will give you a bit of shit.
Actually yes -- in some cases (Score:5, Interesting)
If it's a technology person, that's a red flag. I'd expect them to at least have their own domain name. It doesn't cost THAT much and looks far more professional.
Heck, even my cat has her own domain name.
If it's a non-tech field, meh, I don't care that much. But I have to chuckle when I see a small business with a website and their own domain name, but still using @comcast or @aol on their business card for email.
Yes, For Business! (Score:1, Interesting)
At my company, we assume that legit businesses have company e-mail addresses like joe@mycompany.com -- anything else say potential spam or worse...
My Auntie Mable on the other hand uses one of the "public" e-mail providers, and that's just fine.
Just my 2 cents worth...
Re:Actually yes -- in some cases (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Actually yes -- in some cases (Score:4, Interesting)
what is the point of your own domain name? i've seen plenty of good IT people who almost technologically illiterate in some areas. most of our devs don't know a single thing about administration of systems
Re:yes (Score:4, Interesting)
Well where I work, we did in fact throw a number of resumes out the window specifically because of hotmail and AOL email addresses.
But then again, I work in IT, those people SHOULD know better.
Username matters too (Score:5, Interesting)
When I'm looking at a resume, I don't want to see RoxxyFoxxy@somewhere.com. Or something completely weird and difficult to decipher and type out. It's not hard to maintain a FMLastname or Firstname.Lastname@gmail.com and direct it to an address that expresses your individuality or whatnot.
Basically, I'm looking for professionalism. That means a resume with no typos or obvious errors/exaggerations ("Proficient in C, C+, and C++" is a gem that springs to mind), and appropriate attire at the interview. Having some kind of in-joke or bizarre reference or obscure handle as your username on the resume is kind of like wearing a tshirt with a weird slogan on it to the interview, although certainly not so severe.
nicknames of the upmodded comments so far: (Score:4, Interesting)
"weave"
there isn't a joke that hasn't been made about girls with weaves
"RogueyWon"
you're roguey? is that like sarah palin being mavericky?
"thepainguy"
hello mr. S&M. go spank behinds somewhere else
"Southpaw018"
ah yes, the proud left handed type, always announcing his left handed status without prompting. almost as annoying as the proud "i don't watch tv" type so damn proud of what nobody cares about
"91degrees"
makes me think of that lame pop band 98 degrees
"Pharmboy"
do you spam c1alis emails? or do sell adderall on your local college campus?
"MistrBlank"
i'm sorry for your reproductive issues. in vitro fertilization offers wonderful outcomes nowadays
point being: prejudice is ignorant, all-pervasive, and easy. the idea is not that you should conform your email/ nickname to such small minds, but that if you lose a contact, or a job, due to such small minds, you should consider yourself LUCKY for the loss of contact with such mediocre people
i know well-respected medical doctors with aol addresses from the 1990s. because they don't have time to play mindless little image games like this one. this whole issue is stupid
Re:yes (Score:4, Interesting)
Things like @aol.com and @hotmail.com don't bother me, what bothers me is before the @ symbol. joe_middlename_bloggs@ is fine, even from things like Hotmail, but xXxXx_BuBbLe_PrInCeSs_1987_xXxXx@ is going to find its way to my trash folder very, very quickly.
Re:yes (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:yes (Score:1, Interesting)
Not a valid email address, or at least it was not when I was a part of the operations team at CompuServe, and I seriously doubt it ever was, given that we were trying to move away from the numeric IDs and were going to disallow totally numeric email addresses unless they were the one internally assigned by our systems. I helped teach Secret Service and FBI agents how to recognize these sorts of "fake" IDs.
Bonus bragging points if you can explain the true source of CSI's PPNs.
As for TFA... While folks really should not throw out folks just because they have an email address at AOL, Hotmail, GMail, etc, I am quite sure it happened. Sad, considering that sites like this were good for getting a inexpensive or free permanent email address which did not change when you changed ISPs or employers.
- Doug (one time 70004.3304@compuserve.com)
Re:Absolutely not. (Score:3, Interesting)
If the job entailed cars or phones or newspapers, then yes, I would hope potential employers would choose to hire someone with an actual interest in the work rather than not.
If applying for IT and you give an AOL email address, you probably aren't very attuned to IT.
I have a client who is a mortgage broker and keeps using his aol email for business. I keep telling him to use his business email. He really can't afford to lose business over an email.
Re:Actually yes -- in some cases (Score:5, Interesting)
Most lawyers are not only uneducated in technology, but they are also raging cheapskates. They make wheelbarrow loads of cash compared to the typical worker yet they refuse to throw away a $25.00 box of incorrect business cards. Hell one I did work for refused to buy real network gear but complained that his network needed to be reboot regularly because the power in his shitty office was so bad it locked up the network gear. My cheap solution was a $129.00 UPS on the networking gear. He flipped out at how expensive it was. This was in line with every other lawyer I did work for. Some of the scummy ones will try and bully you into doing things for free. I ran a HDMI from his closet to his TV on the wall. Then they guy called back a year later threatening to sue me because he could not get composite video from his 8 year old VCR he brought from home to the TV. I told him he needed equipment to do that, he threatened to sue me because I listened to him when he said," No I only want the cable box on there, do not run any other wires." I reminded him of the documentation I had with his signature, plus emails, and I would gladly welcome his lawsuit.
I don't do any work for Lawyers anymore. They are some of the most unreasonable people on the planet.
Re:yes (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes. Email is a cheap expense if it helps you get a job. In fact, GMail doesn't cost a thing.
Re:yes (Score:5, Interesting)
<recipient tag>@<tag>.<mydomain>
For example if I'm applying to Google it could be something like:
googlehr@google.mydomain
That way if my CV gets passed around later on, I might have an idea of who did it.
My CV is also typically in html. It looks about the same on most browsers, but depending on the circumstances the reader might see different content. I might also get notification that someone is reading my CV
So far I guess I'm lucky that it hasn't stopped me from getting jobs
Re:yes (Score:2, Interesting)
Having used both gmail and hotmail, I wouldn’t put them on the same level. If hotmail does e-mail well enough, gmail does it well.
A hotmail address still wouldn’t be anywhere remotely as bad as an AOL address, of course. I would, however, wonder why they didn’t have anything better than hotmail.
Re: easier to have a webmail address (Score:5, Interesting)
And more importantly, if you have a domain name you're not tied into the webmail provider OR your ISP.
I have firstname@lastname.com as my email address (yes, it's a bit generic - ha!). All my email accounts on my domain are consolidated within a gmail account, but now they allow me to properly use my own SMTP server via GMail, I can completely invisibly do this. So nobody sending mail to or receiving mail from me knows it's all done by Gmail.
Not only am I completely decoupled from my ISP, I'm also decoupled from my mail provider. If Google does something I don't like, or something better comes along (unlikely, but possible) I can switch my email instantly at no cost. Likewise, if I'm unlucky enough to have my mail suspended for some reason, again, I'm not at GMail's mercy.
Complete lack of reliance on mail provider and ISP is the only way to be sure.
Peronsal domain name is negative for me (Score:1, Interesting)
On the topic of professionalism, I'd put a black tick against having a personal domain name because:
1) it's a sign of vanity/ego and as an employer, I'd much prefer intelligence to ego;
2) it's contributing to domain name space pollution (I'd lump it in with cyber squatting in terms of benefit vs harm);
3) I have no confidence that it actually works because I have no idea who hosts it - if anyone.
Re:People aren't rational (Score:3, Interesting)
You are 100% correct, which is why I use a gmail address on my resume. It also helps that I joined early enough to get firstname.lastname@gmail.com so it looks pretty professional.
However, while I will change myself to suit stupid human nature, I will lose a lot of respect for anyone I discover is foolish enough to discard a resume based on email address unless the actual email address is indecent or completely unprofessional. That's like judging people as being your inferiors because they happen to have an address on the "other side of the tracks". If you handed me two resumes: one that had an aol.com address and another with a line that says "I reject applicants based on their aol.com address", I know which one I would send to the trash can without looking any further. The first applicant may be a little slow, but the second one is definitely unprofessional, and probably a bigot to boot.
The fact that these aol.com people could get a new email address if they wanted to is irrelevant. In my time, I have had an AOL account, a hotmail account, a yahoo account, as well as some cable company personal accounts, and of course my college and work email accounts. I found Gmail to be interesting, but it's not so much better than any other web mail account that the change is compelling. I don't see why any practically-minded person would bother switching unless it was to get a better user name or to suit irrational bigotry. It's not like they are insisting that the world is still flat by using an aol.com address.
I would NOT hire someone... (Score:3, Interesting)
I just can't see sophisticated software engineers, DBAs, systems engineers, of anyone else in IT carrying an AOL email address with a straight face.
Re:yes (Score:5, Interesting)
I wouldn't hire someone with an AOL address, not for any technology job. It just shows that they're not too smart, since they pay extra every month for a useless online service primarily for email when you can get free email addresses from Yahoo or Gmail.
Now, I definitely would NOT exclude someone because they had a Gmail or Yahoo or Hotmail address. That seems rather silly, as those are the largest webmail providers, they're free, they don't go away when you change ISPs or employers, etc. In fact, what alternatives do job-seekers have for email?
1) Company email addresses: this is pretty stupid. Only an idiot would list his current work address when looking for a new job. This would be the first person whose resume I'd throw in the trash (even before the AOL users). Is this employee so inept that he doesn't know how to get an email address that isn't tied to his employer? What does he think is going to happen to this address when he leaves his job (which he's obviously interested in doing)? And what is he doing blatantly using company email for personal purposes? I don't want someone like that around.
2) ISP email addresses: another big sign that someone is not internet-savvy. Are you so clueless that you don't know how to sign up for a Gmail account (which lets you download your mail by POP if you want)? What do you think will happen when you have to change ISPs, such as if you move to another state for a job? Really, having to update your email address with everyone you know or do business with is so 90s. This is exactly why we changed to Gmail, Yahoo mail, etc., so we'd have one address that would always stay the same.
3) Other paid email services: why pay for something you can get for free, especially when Gmail works so well? Unless you own your own domain and have email through that (which actually is a good sign), this just doesn't have any advantage over Gmail et al. And as someone who's had an account with Netidentity.com (now owned by Tucows), it can be a big PITA when their service goes down for days at a time due to their ineptness. Google doesn't have this problem; when Gmail goes down for 45 minutes, it's front-page news.
Re:hey! (Score:3, Interesting)
The value in some comics is their artwork. The value in some comics is their humor or topics. I tend to prefer the latter. Dinosaur comics makes me laugh more consistently than almost any other comic out there.
I love the fact that his humor does not need to be propped up with artwork; it stands on its own.
Re:hey! (Score:1, Interesting)
Indoctrination.
Dinosaur Comics repeatedly shows the same image. If a stronger association is made with "Haha this comic is funny," you will in turn grow to find more comics, due to the specific images used, to be funny.
Note that stronger association doesn't necessarily mean that more of said comics are funny. Just that your hilarity meter rises more than falls. If funny comics have a funny value of 10 and unfunny comics have a value of -1, provided that at least 1 in 10 comics are funny you'll associate the images with funny.
Further, if your funny value is at 0, at the very least your indoctrination will place comfortable familiarity on each comic making it more likely you'll, if not enjoy, not hate the comic.
You'll note that in earlier comics, Ryan North experimented with various different strategies to "shake things up" by reversing comic order, playing with non-linear comics, and so on. However, as time passed, the established style of dinosaur comics...was established.
Re:yes (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes,
Because an email address is an indicator of how professional one intends to act. If you put a thinly veiled reference to pot on your resume then expect not to get a job. I'd sooner accept JPerson@aol.com before PrincessJodie@hotmail.com and I've seen more then one resume which has had the latter style of address.
It really doesn't hurt to put a decent email address down on your resume, something simple and non offensive. I've seen resumes thrown out over more trivial things then an email address so it does count especially when a job has a lot of competition.
Degrees of stupid (Score:3, Interesting)
Really, what it comes down to is a social assessment of a persons' technical ability and/or competence.
I'm a sysadmin. If I were to deal with someone with an @aol.com or @hotmail.com, I'd think a combination of the following things:
1) They're older.
2) They're technologically and/or socially conservative.
3) They're incompetent (when it comes to computers).
There's no technical advantage to using either of those domains for email; that's why they've got the stigma, and why people have moved away to other web based mail.
These might not be 'correct' implications, but the stigma is there, just the same - even though someone with an @live.com address wouldn't likely have the same stigma.
If I were a writer, I'd not worry about it so much. For most people, an email address shows nothing more about them than their physical mailing address (even if it's something stupid, like discgolfbum@hotmail.com).
If I were an IT hiring manager or something like that, hiring for a Linux administrator, an @live.com or similar email address would dissuade me somewhat from interest in said candidate. In IT, there is a degree of technical savvy which needs to be demonstrated in a person's personal technology choices - preferably pertaining to their expertise.
Meanwhile, those of us who have had our own vanity domains and host our email through that will never face this problem.