"Yes, Your Email Address is Making You Look Like an Idiot" - 02/06/19 Edition
Stephen Says Column
Dear Stephen:
Having a fight with my wife, and I am hoping you can settle it. She’s making fun of my email address which is Topcat68@aol.com (FYI: We changed the name of the real email to protect the writer). Here’s the story behind the name: I have had my email account for 20 years, and I picked it because it was my favorite cartoon (I was born in 1968). My wife says it’s dating me because everyone will think I was born in 1968, which I was, so it reveals my age to prospective employers.
I sort of get her point, and I should probably get a new email address but my real name is now taken, and I am having a hard time getting anything even close to it. It’s worth mentioning some people like my email address, and when I’m on a job interview no one has mentioned it. What do you think?
TopCat
Dear TopCat:
Your wife is 100 percent right, and you are an idiot. There are a couple of rules I tell all candidates, and one is your email address is almost as important as your resume. What you choose as an email address reveals a lot about who you are as a person, and the reason I say you are an idiot is because no prospective employer is going to tell you they made a judgment on whether to interview you or not based on your email name, but it is
The last thing you want to do is get an interview, and the first question from the interviewer’s mouth is how in the world did you come up with that email address, just an unconscious decision people make.
Similar to what people do with your age, which your wife is right about. So for instance, even joesmith68 is as bad as Topcat68 because it is revealing a fact no one needs to know. And, BTW, even if you didn’t put the “68” in there, everyone knows your age simply because you still have an AOL email address — OMG!
I get it you came late to the email game, and your name may be taken, but there are ways around it. You can pick an email address you like by going to a different email service provider — there’s many of them — but I’d advise you to think about sticking with what has become the “standard” now, which is gmail. Just come up with an email that is reasonable and neutral and unrelated to anything. The last thing you want to do is get an interview, and the first question from the interviewer’s mouth is how in the world did you come up with that email address.
It’s true that employers are not allowed to judge you by your age, name, race or anything like that, yet human nature tells us they may. Which I detest but I just want to give you the best advice I can. I wish I could tell you using TopCat68@ aol will not affect your job possibilities but in my heart of hearts I know someone is going to judge you for that name even though they should not. Now, I am even sorry I called you an idiot.
Stephen
You can send your workplace questions to Stephen at: StephenSays@bellow.press
Questions selected to be answered, will appear in this column. Please use the Subject: Stephen Says for all emails. Stephen Viscusi is a bestselling author, television personality, and CEO of The Viscusi Group, global executive recruiters located in New York. Follow Stephen on Twitter @stephenviscusi; Like Stephen on Facebook; and follow him on LinkedIn.
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