Email is old. In its earliest incarnation, email dates from 1965– a time when computers were as big as elephants and only a small number of nerds had regular access to them – and the kind of email we know today dates from the early 1970s.
Since then, email has become an integral part of modern life, revolutionizing all of our personal and professional communication (not to mention becoming a spam hose And distracts hell from us). And while The kids hate email and generally prefer to communicate with almost every other tool, there is one place where email remains king: the office.
Businesses love email, and if you’re looking for a job, you’ll use email a lot. But you should be careful because the email address you use tells hiring managers something about you.
Email can announce how savvy you are on the internet
One of the simplest “tells” your email can offer recruiters and hiring managers is your age. If you use an AOL.com address, everyone will assume that you’re not just an elderly person (most AOL.com users today are over 50 years old), but an older person who is not particularly well versed with the Internet. The same goes for Hotmail email addresses (or an Outlook.com address that Microsoft converted old Hotmail addresses to in 2013).
Keeping an old AOL.com address is easy for some people; for others it’s nostalgia – for many people of a certain age, AOL.com was their very first email address and they’re reluctant to get rid of it. Even with an older Apple address like yourname@me.com or yourname@icloud.com gives an indication of your vintage.
It’s obviously illegal for hiring managers to discriminate against you based on your age, and sticking with an old email address isn’t a reliable indicator of your skills. But everyone has unconscious biases, so why give them a reason to reject your application? Keep your old address for personal use and Set up a Gmail account for everything else (better yet, create a specific email for your job search).
Email may indicate immaturity
Many of us set up our first email address when we were young. My first email was “Linknull” for reasons I can’t adequately explain (I’m sure there was an inside joke that’s now lost in the sands of time). And if you were a teenager or young adult when you set up your first email address, there’s a non-zero chance that you got an inappropriate reference, an inside joke, an outdated pop culture reference, or the numbers 420 or 69 contains.
It should be obvious, but using an email like “bongwater69@gmail.com” makes a bad first impression on businesses. Don’t assume that your joke or reference is so obscure or innovative that nobody in the business world will understand – everyone was 16 once, and the corporate world is full of people who fly under the radar.
Email may indicate a lack of sophistication
Things become standards for a reason. You might despise Google as a company (because it’s a Privacy nightmare, for example), but Gmail has become the true neutrality of email addresses. Using an old email like AOL.com or a weird email from your school days can show people that you’re not up to changing your email address or that you don’t know how look with it – or not knowing you have other options. In today’s technological world, it’s not a good move to spread the idea that you can’t master something as simple as setting up a Gmail account if you’re trying to convince someone to pay you.
Use a correct email address for your job search
There’s a time and place for that address to reflect your age, personality, and attitude — but job hunting isn’t. Your email address is a forward-facing aspect of your identity, and while an old (or weird) email doesn’t necessarily preclude you from being considered for a job, there aren’t many good reasons to take the risk enter into.
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