In introductions and first impressions, the emphasis used to be placed on a firm handshake and eye contact. The advent of instant communication, however, is changing the way we meet people, and not just in chat rooms or online dating services. Potential employers/employees, college admissions and financial aid officers, supervisors and a list of other important people that we desperately want to impress, are now meeting us electronically – usually through e-mail. You may not think of your email address as something that can damage you, but employers and corporations have repeatedly listed unprofessional email addresses as one of the top reasons they are less likely to consider a candidate for a position. This means that your wonderful, outstanding, jealousy-inducing résumé listing your experience, talent and educational history can be killed because it came from an unprofessional sounding email address, like the one you created when you were thirteen – bigdawg234@aol.com.
Consider the following (fictional) email addresses: Bigdawg234@aol.com Shannon.Lujan@gmail.com jackandkatieH1992@hotmail.com Lindalee@lindalee.com BigEasy4582@godaddy.com Antony.Spotswood@louisiana.edu Here is what these addresses tell me: BigDawg234 – probably an old address (the AOL tag tells me that and, fair or not, I see AOL and don’t really picture someone who’s that up-to-date). I at least know Shannon, Lin
da and Antony’s names (and I have a positive impression of them for that – it’s like that firm handshake and eye contact). Linda has her own website. Antony works for or has attended a college or university in Louisiana. Jack & Katie are probably celebrating their twentieth anniversary this year. Also, since they share an email account, I’m unsure of who’ll be reading anything I send to their address – will it be Jack or Katie? BigEasy4582 – I hope this person loves New Orleans, but the godaddy.com tag makes me leery. Perhaps they’re just edgy. If these addresses showed up in your inbox, unsolicited, you might open the emails – no harm in looking, right? BigDawg sounds like a potentially fun guy, after all. But, at some point a quirky email address may well cost you an internship, admission to an undergraduate or graduate degree program, and/or a job. And a suggestive email username can be a real killer. So, if you feel you must have a humorous or potentially offensive email address, at least be wise enough to have a second you can use as a student and prospective employee.