Tuesday, April 10, 2007

So You Think you have a “cool” email address..be careful when applying to jobs...

It may have taken you a couple weeks to find that ultra cool email address, but think twice before using it as your contact email when applying to jobs. A study that has come out indicates that employers rate these creative emails names as less professional then somewhat normal email names.

I have attached a very interesting study performed by Kevin Tamanin. This is his thesis which he did at Ohio University. Please visit this link to read the entire thesis. It is entitled The Perception of Electronic Mail Names and How those Perceptions Affect a Job Related Evaluation Process.

I agree 100% with Kevin’s findings! (Does that mean I have a new Masters degree?) Actually, if you read through this thesis, you will find study after study that indicates an unprofessional email address used for a resume or online communication can be the kiss of death!

One of his studies used the moniker drunkensquirl@ and HtoTHEhizzy03@ as examples of highly “unprofessional” emails. When he submitted resumes with those email addresses to potential employers, the response rate from employers was extremely low. By just changing the email addresses to a more professional email address (he used jsmith8888@), the results were much greater!

In my 20 years of recruiting in Orlando, the last 10 years I have seen some of the craziest email addresses. Being the recruiter I am, I would still call the potential candidate, but not with an interesting picture in my mind developed by the candidates email address.

Good rule of thumb…get a professional email address for your career!

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