Attention Job Seekers: Please make sure your email address is professional. Thank you.
Why is it that 98% of job seekers have a professional email address, while many still choose emails like kissyface23@email.com? Like most people, recruiters first see the senders email address before opening. In the case of online resume submittal, a candidates email address is truly the first impression made. One particular story that sticks in my mind is from a few years ago. A co-worker of mine, Stacey, was recruiting for a technical opening and was just getting to reviewing resumes she received over night for the position. Without warning Stacey blew up into laughter. She had received a resume from someone using kinkyboots420@email.com as their address. Kinkyboots? As if kinkyboots wasn’t enough, this superstar candidate wanted employers to know his/her favorite number as well…420. You can’t get much more nutty banana party than this.
Although kinkyboots most likely wasn’t offered a job with our client, this particular job seeker provided a non-stop source of comedic relief within our team, living on in infamy. Other staffing professionals have similar stories surrounding unprofessional job seekers. If you’re friends with a recruiter, ask them to tell you a story about one, not only will you laugh but you’ll learn what not to do in your job search. If for some reason you aren’t friends with a recruiter, then make friends. They are some of the hardest working, most determined, and hilarious people you’ll meet. Back to business I go.
Most of you, hopefully all of you reading this have mastered utilizing a professional email addresses. Let’s use my name to provide some examples of professional addresses:
- R.DeMatteo@e-mail.com
- Rich.DeMatteo@e-mail.com
- RichardDeMatteo@e-mail.com
- RichieD@e-mail.com (nick names are OK, as long as they are appropriate)
- DeMatteo@e-mail.com
- Rich.B.DeMatteo@e-mail.com
Easy enough, right? Combinations of first, middle, and last name should do the trick. Here are some examples of unprofessional email addresses:
- SlickRick@e-mail.com
- BigPimpRich@e-mail.com
- LOSTfan98@e-mail.com
- Ineedajob@e-mail.com (desperation never helps)
- HotPants27@e-mail.com
- KornOnTheJob@-email.com
What have we learned? Stay away from hobbies, desperation, inappropriate numbers, and anything that Hannah Montana wouldn’t say.
