<p>I had to do FirstnameMiddleinitialLastname to get ANYTHING, because I have an absurdly common name. I think the middle initial is pretty hard to miss in my name, it’s a vowel next to a double consonant and my name doesn’t have a lot of letters in it to begin with. Those of you that have my email address can be the judge. </p>
<p>I think gmail had recommended this to me: <a href=“mailto:Last.Last.1000.first@gmail”>Last.Last.1000.first@gmail</a>. Seriously. It’s a miracle I got anything decent.</p>
<p>Yes, Google’s suggestions are really funny!</p>
<p>I’m going to recommend that she use her full first name (it’s kind of formal, and everyone calls her by her nickname, but that gmail is taken) and her last name. Thanks for the advice, everyone!</p>
<p>Yahoo,aol and hotmail gives the prospective employer an idea of your age. These accounts are used by older people. To appear young or not give your age away, it is recommended to get a gmail account.</p>
<p>Such advice doesn’t make much sense to me. Increasingly, people will have a hard time getting their name (or even the various forms of their name) for their gmail account, without attaching numbers, for example.</p>
<p>Also non-sensical to me is the idea that gmail is the only acceptable domain name for a “professional” email address. Are resume readers incapable of determining the applicant’s rough age via the resume’s biographical data? I have my own domain, and my email address does not contain my name. Does that make me old, young, or in-between?</p>
<p>This reminds me of the concept that a “212” area code is much better than a “646” area code. :)</p>
<p>Fignewtom,
My information was from a professional person who is in the industry of resume writing and making oneself more marketable for the job market. It really does make sense. Plus gmail accounts are recommended for someone job hunting because not only do you have an email account, you have google documents and google calender linked to your account. You can edit, share your documents and resumes from any computer anywhere.
You can do a google search and get this information in many places recommending this method. It just makes one more relevant and current with business practices of the day.</p>
<p>My name’s not that common, but kristin.lastname wasn’t available. I used kristin.lastname.gradyear until I graduated (could forward my multiple accounts to gmail, which is awesome, only one inbox to check!). Now, I use lastname.kristin.middleinitial, and so far haven’t had any problems with it. The only drawback is that it’s 16 characters, which is kind of annoying.</p>
<p>And while spelling out my whole name feels tedious…it can’t take more than 5 seconds to rattle off the proper spelling of my first and last names. To me, having my name spelled accurately is worth it. Plus, what’s 5 seconds anyway?</p>
<p>I’d suggest she work around combinations of her names and initials until she finds something that works. Personally, I don’t like numbers in email address.</p>
<p>Forget Gmail, tell her to get her own domain name with her last name and just use her girst name as the username. So it’d be <a href=“mailto:Firstname@Lastname”>Firstname@Lastname</a>. This would only cost about $5 per year. My uncle does this because he finds it infinitely more professional. However, he owns every “Darkonian.com/org/net/whatever” except .edu and .gov, and the fact that he can’t acquire these angers him lol…</p>
<p>Most people get some version of their name – whatever is available. I suggest avoiding underscores and hyphens – the underscore is hard to see, and the hyphen is confusing (especially because many people call it a dash, but a dash is in fact something entirely different). A period is better. Or just run everything together.</p>
<p>My daughter is <a href="mailto:firstnameilastname@gmail.com">firstnameilastname@gmail.com</a><a href=“%22i%22%20stands%20for%20her%20middle%20initial”>/email</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, if we tried to get new gmail addresses now, we might not be able to get something this straightforward. We might have to settle for something like <a href="mailto:lastnamefirstname256@gmail.com">lastnamefirstname256@gmail.com</a>. If you have to put numbers in, try to get numbers that you’ll remember, just as you do when making up passwords.</p>
<p>I have been told by my son, who is a computer jock, that among computer people, having to put numbers in your gmail address could count against you professionally because it means that you were too stupid to get gmail when it first came out. If there is any basis for this, a person in a computer-related field might be better off getting an address somewhere else, rather than getting a gmail address that reveals that you only obtained the address recently.</p>
<p>^Exactly. Are people really arguing that the form of someone’s email address holds significance for a hiring manager, in the sense that the manager will think “Nice resume, but that email address is SO unprofessional” and dump the resume and/or drop it in priority? I guess people don’t think much of human resource employees; or, they are correct, in which case I feel a little bit sad.</p>
<p>The main problem for me here is the idea that a single domain (in this case, gmail.com) could be considered the only acceptable one for email in this context, and not for reasons of utility (google docs et al). As time goes by, no one will be able to get a form of his or her name in a gmail address without adding (long) number strings or performing other feats of contortion.</p>
<p>One can do whatever one wants. Some of the information is coming from people who actually look at resumes. Either you are with it or not. Sometimes a stupid little thing can be a deciding factor.</p>
<p>I’ll be starting a new job on Monday after a number of recent interviews at which the recruiter or hiring manager mentioned my “memorable” email address. It’s first initial last initial dot occupational field at yahoo dot com. It apparently does lend credence that I am a professional in that field. (And apparently it also identifies me as a geezer since it’s not a gmail address.)</p>
<p>I wasn’t aware gmail was such a big deal. I just got a gmail account because my yahoo email is not resume-friendly and I didn’t want to have to log out of it to check my “work” account. I don’t actually like gmail at all.</p>
<p>Google knows too much about me already. They know most everything I search, and they know my schedule. I’m not going to give them access to my email, too.</p>
<p>It isn’t. It’s just the only free email service that’s considered acceptable at this point. Yahoo & Hotmail accounts have a very long history of being used/abused by spammers, and AOL signals that the person is totally inept when it comes to computer stuff. </p>
<p>An email attached to a major service provider (<a href="mailto:Jill.Jones@att.net">Jill.Jones@att.net</a>) – is acceptable, but you have to be buying internet service from ATT to get that. And those have the disadvantage of not being portable/permanent if you quit paying for the service.</p>
<p>The domain thing is one way to go. It’s pretty easy to set up, assuming you are able to buy a professional sounding domain name.</p>
<p>Interesting thread!
Right now I have <a href="mailto:FirstLast12@gmail.com">FirstLast12@gmail.com</a><a href=“which%20will%20be%20my%20graduation%20year”>/email</a> which I planned to use permanently starting with my grad applications next year.</p>
</p>