As many of you probably know (if not, why not?!), my e-mail address is weiran@tastydirt.co.uk, while the novelty of this address is forever permanent, it always makes me think twice when I write down this address for something like a job application. My GMail account serves that purpose, something reputible, but the smell of a free e-mail service lacks professionalism. Even though I own upwards of twenty domains, something like Poogasm.com isn’t much better then Tastydirt.com.
One has to wonder if a silly e-mail address really affects your job prospects, and a part of me really wants to find out. However, using myself as a human guinea pig and placing my third year job placement on the line for the sake of humanity doesn’t really appeal to me as soon as I think about it.
My ideal e-mail address would probably be weiran@mac.com, but the annual £70 subscription fee for .Mac is very heafty, seeing as I’ll just be using it for e-mail. I could also register some very classy sounding domain, but I usually get tempted away by things like Flackr.com and Fuckr.me.uk. I do own Weiran.name and Weiran.co.uk, but I can’t really think of any good usernames to go with them.
So here is my dilemma, should I shell out for a .Mac subscription and pay £70 a year, or keep my current address and risk the chance of not ever getting a job?
9 Comments
Use weiran@weiran.co.uk. I’ve scrutinised 100s of application forms, and I don’t think .mac looks any more professional that gmail (though both are 100 times better than hotmail or yahoo).
Poogasm.com could be a winner, too, depending on the industry you’re looking to work in….
How about gimmeajobplease@weiran.co.uk or imavailable@weiran.co.uk or numberoneemployee@weiran.co.uk
If you use something like: jobapps@weiran.co.uk it might look like you’ve applied to loads of people so they had better snap you up quick!
I must admit, I went through exactly the same dilemma when looking for a job last year. I had the choice of jamessansspam@windoze.biz or mesansspam@J4mes.me.uk, in the end i ended up using james.harland_sansspam@pc-retail.com (without the _sansspam) because I thought it sounded quite professional.
Nowadays i just use jamessansspam@micra.org.uk or jamessansspam@comtecs.co.uk :)
Crap I should’ve NOSPAMMED them :(
Don’t worry, I’ve fooled the spam bots! Most can recognise NOSPAM now, so its better to use something else.
Thanks for the advice guys, but I think I’ll go for weiran@weiran.co.uk.
I forgot to mention that I also have Zhang.org.uk, at which I have an address already being weiran@zhang.org.uk, but I never really liked .org.uk addresses that much.
How about weiran@zhang.bsc?! Or just make some important looking letters after your name!
I would, but you can’t get .bsc domains…. org.uk was the only domain name left for “zhang”.
Should fix your skin properly before putting it up :P
Posts from you hurt my eyes ;)
I agree… You f*cked it up a bit Waz!
Like the black though… Hang on! You’ve turned goth on me haven’t you?!
LOL!