professional & secure name for an email account?

[Talon]

Well it's that time again: job hunting time. I've 3 weeks left on my internship, but I'm not waiting till the end of it to start searching. Actually I had planned to start last month, but thanks to house renovations I couldn't. So if anyone needs an IT-Security guy with an applied tech degree and some volunteer desktop support experience, please let me know

So I've been thinking about getting a new email address for use in job-hunting and other such professional networking activities. The current one I use to put on my resume is TALON(###)(at)hotmail.com, where the #'s are numbers. As email addresses go it doesn't seem particularly outlandish, but given how anal job interviewers seem, best to err on the side of conservatism.

I thought of dusting off my old yahoo account, which was (firstname)(lastname)@etc, but I'm leery of making my last name public. Yes I know, anyone who has my resume will get ahold of my last name, but still. I thought of maybe using (firstname)(first syllable of last name) or something. Does anyone have any advice? Also, does anyone have any suggestions for which email service to use? Gmail? Yahoo? More hotmail? Thanks.

[AdminAssistant]

I think any of the major providers are fine (hotmail, gmail, etc.) If I were setting up a new account, it would be a gmail account, but that's just me. You could do something like: (first two initials) (last name) which would provide some anonymity, depending on how common your last name is.

I will say that your instincts are exactly right in changing your e-mail. I'm guessing you wouldn't want a potential employer to track you down here. An e-mail address that contains your name looks much more professional.

[draftermatt]

I use my ISP e-mail address which is first-name middle-initial last-name @ isp.com

I only use it for job hunting, so it's people I want to have my name, and since I have it set up to show in inboxes as from "Matt Name" it'll work fine.

If you don't have an ISP then I don't see where gmail, yahoo, hotmail would count against you.

I've always heard that as long as it's not inappropriate or immature it shouldn't be frowned upon.

[Bandit]

Definitely try to get an e-mail using your real name.

From what I have heard, name@gmail.com is about the best way to go as far as presenting a good image on the resume.

Good luck with the job hunt!

B

[KiaKat]

I actually have an email address set up with the name I eventually want to give my store. It's a play-on-words that references both my love of wine and one of my cats. It also ties into a the blog I've started, and one of my Twitter handles. But the booze business allows for a bit of that sort of creativity.

[Whiskey]

mine is the same. its just whiskey.lastname @ gmail.

[It's me]

You can register your own domain for $8-$10 a year, including e-mail forwading of about 10 email addresses. That lets you have email address that are portable (or ditchable) which can point to your real email account.

Then you can set yourself up with (say) nickname@yourdomain.org or firstname.lastname@yourdomain.org or even forwarded.to.the.bit.bucket@yourdomain.org

Of course you would need to have yourdomain.org be something sane, and not "drunkenidiots.org" or somesuch.....

Edit: I had to check. Yeah, it seems to be available......

[ArcticChicken]

My job hunting email is FirstNameMiddleInitialLastName@gmail.com.

[BookstoreEscapee]

My email address is firstnamelastinitial (though my gmail is firstnamemiddleinitial because it wouldn't let me use my last initial). My regular email my dad set up so I wasn't given a choice of names; when I set up gmail I wanted to use the same thing so I just changed the initial when it wouldn't let me.

[Talon]

Well I bit the paranoia bullet and went with (first initial)(middle initial)(full last name)@gmail.com. Actually turns out my last name is more common on the internet than I thought. Might not be so common IRL, but I'll risk it. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[trailerparkmedic]

The email I use for job applications and such is <first name><married last name><number>. I'm sad that my married name is more common than my maiden name and I need a number. I like being a speshul snowflake.

[elsporko]

This might look dumb if you have a short last name; but what I do is have the first letter of my first name and a portion of my last name. That would make it a little more anonymous for you without having it be something like Hollabackgurl@neopets.com

[Eric the Grey]

Well I bit the paranoia bullet and went with (first initial)(middle initial)(full last name)@gmail.com. Actually turns out my last name is more common on the internet than I thought. Might not be so common IRL, but I'll risk it. Thanks for all the suggestions.

In my Web Design II class this past spring, my instructor made us create new e-mail addresses, professional ones for use later in life (like when we're all out there doing professional web design).

Her belief is that Hotmail and Yahoo mail are both looked down on for professional IT related jobs, and gmail was the way to go. I honestly can't say that I would disagree in hotmail's case. I haven't decided on yahoo yet...

Anyway, I went ahead and set up a <firstname>.<middlename>.<lastname>@gmail.com address for myself. We actually used it in class, having a group for shared documents (we had a class-wide project to finish, and shared all our notes, and other work) and corresponded throughout class through them. So far, no spam has shown up.

I was actually surprised that I was able to get it. My names (all 3) are fairly common, and in fact I keep having to tell people that I'm no relation to a certain TV celebrity, and Politician...

Anyway, if you keep said address limited to your job prospects (ie: don't use them for forum accounts, or leave them visible online) you should be Ok. Even to this day, the only mail the above address gets is an occasional one from classmates.


Eric the Grey