What Your Email Address Says About You

I owe this post to the folks at recruiting blogs.com who are the inspiration for it. Their recent commentary on this subject lead me to reevaluate my thoughts on email addresses.  This is the result.

Everyone has a personal brand.  Your brand is your name.  It should be used in your email address, especially if you are job hunting.

Our email addresses are so much a part of us that we don't even think about them and we totally take them for granted.  But if you want to be taken seriously as a professional, then your email address has to be professional.

Many people established email addresses years ago before we knew what emails would become.  In those days I received lots of emails with cutsie names on them. You know,  Happyface@yahoo.com. In those days, mine was PSGumby..  I still occasionally see emails with these kinds of addresses.  They are wrong for professional use.

The first problem is that cutsie names do not identify you as an adult.  They are precious. They are clever, but they are not serious.  And they may communicate that the people who use these kinds of email addresses are not serious executives.  The second problem is that they do not identify you at all.  I get notes all the time from candidates who assume that I know who they are when they sign their email, “Bob”.  They have strange and cute email addresses and then sign their first name only.  If they do not use their full name as part of their email address, I cannot tell who they are.  (A few years ago, I had a string of Kiersten’s.  I actually had five people by that name interviewing during one month.  Two of them used email that did not have their full name;  it drove me crazy and I had to email back and ask them which one they were.)

I get a fair number of emails from husband and wife combinations.  You know, PaulAmye@.  Sometimes I can figure out who the candidate is, but often not.  Imagine if you were a hiring manager and you get a thank you note with that as an identifier, especially if you have interviewed two people with the same first name.

Here is a brief list of  dos and don'ts for email addresses:

Use your FULL name - Your full name identifies you.  And, unless you have your own identifiable web site (I am paul@gumbinnercompany.com), you cannot just use your first name and initials.

Not your name – Some candidates actually use other names.  I have never understood why Bob Jones should use Peter Brown as an alias.  (One candidate told me he did this to avoid spam.  Huh?  Ridiculous!) If they think that I can remember who it is, that person is very egocentric.   

Cutsie name – Ilovebaseball@ is unacceptable, unidentifiable and unprofessional.  Your college nickname, a description (e.g. longlegs@), sports names and crude names don’t belong on a professional submission.

Spouse Combo – Covered above.  Email addresses are free.  Get your own if you are job hunting.  And      remember that maybe, the client company does not wish to communicate with both you and your spouse.

Unidentifiable Numbers or Initials – Do you really expect a reader to know who you are? e.g. lpm2@  - I might remember this during the immediacy of interviewing, but I certainly won't remember it three weeks later. This also applies to your first name with last name initials e.g. PaulG83@.  When I see this I cannot possibly remember or know who it is.

Office email – You should have a personal email address if you are job hunting and not use your office,    even if you own the company.  It is just unprofessional.

Your email is your personal brand.  It should contain your full name.  If you have a common name, like Ed Jones, make it identifiable to you Ed.Jonesadguy@ or something similar.

Remember, your email has to make you look serious as an executive.