How professional is your email address?

Posted  | 3 Comment(s)  |  by Jim Davidson

As a career consultant, I meet a lot of fantastic people from all fields of business, and they normally present a very professional image. They have a business card with a title and email clearly displayed, again in a professional manner. Once ties are cut with that business, what will happen to that professional image? People must carry on with it as they present themselves to the marketplace as a unique product, ready to work for someone that values their services.

Unfortunately, many do not realize that the way they represent themselves has an impact on how they (as a product) are received. For now, let’s set aside the clothes, hair, piercings or any other facets that come into play much later in the process. I want to discuss something much more fundamental – the email address.

How would you feel about my being your career coach if the email address I provided you was  something likeIdRatherBeFishing@xyz.com or QuittingMyJobSoon@xyz.net? Is that professionalism?…No! Yet, I see many email addresses being used by candidates that are as bad (or worse)!

Take time to think about the image you want to present to a future employer. There are plenty of sites that provide free email addresses. Take the time to choose an email address that helps to create your professional image before going to market. Our career consultants will bring this to your attention, but why wait?

Jim Davidson
Career Partners International

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Comments

  1. Jack Textor's avatar
    Jack Textor
    | Permalink
    Boy, Jim I agree. So many addresses are inappropriate, as are messages on answering machines. We also find candidates don’t check emails and voicemails for days. When they finally get back to the recruiter or employer, the position has been filled.
  2. Mike Sheppard's avatar
    Mike Sheppard
    | Permalink
    I agree, too, Jim and see this all too often. It is lack of understanding of the personal image candidates should be trying to project. We promote the idea of personal branding. We give candidates design tools to enable them to design suitable personal business cards. Once the design has been accepted as appropriate by the candidate’s consultant, the image is superimposed onto their resumes and letters. This works really well in reinforcing the question of projecting a professional image and sets the candidates apart from the crowd.
    Mike Sheppard
    CareerPlan, Vancouver
  3. Ruben M. Arias's avatar
    Ruben M. Arias
    | Permalink
    Ruben M. Arias Says:
    March 15th, 2010 at 10:10 am

    Usually a serious e-mail address (or at least the one that you will use for professional purposes) may be in this format:

    name.lastname@domain.com
    or
    companyname@domain.com

    Considering that many people can not afford to pay a private domain (I mean individuals), it is not a shame to have an email account from gmail, yahoo or hotmail

    Yours truly

    Lic. Ruben M. Arias
    http://ar.linkedin.com/pub/ruben-m-arias/6/67/328

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