RANT: Which Is Worse: CutieBabe88@Hotmail.com Or JaneDoe1234567@Gmail?

Oh, the e-mail address debate. Our favorite.

One would think that by now, everybody knows that “CutieBabe88″ is not an acceptable e-mail handle. (Yeah, that’s right. We said handle. Welcome back to 1996.)

Yet every so often we come across resumes of otherwise talented people who somehow missed the memo and are putting their personal e-mail addresses out there. Really bad idea.

A dot-com domain costs about $10 a year, and you can set it up so it looks exactly like Gmail, for free, if you like that sort of thing. So you really have no excuse for you@yourname.com.

If you have a really common name and you can’t think of a variation (middle initial? etc?) you get a pass, but the rest of you, if you need a new e-mail, should wait no more.

Jane Turkewitz at Let’s Talk Turkey brings up a different point about e-mail addresses, too. If your e-mail username is YourName@—but it ends in AOL.com, forget it.

I’m currently working on a resume for a writer/editor who is in her early 50′s. One of the biggest challenges that she’s having is that she wants to do more dot-com work but is afraid her age is going to hurt her…One of the first things I noted when starting her rewrite process is that she has an AOL email address.

Time to give up on the ol’ America OnLine.

Jane also linked to a counterpoint from a lawyer.

“I still use the email address I handpicked in 1993…It’s SHGLaw…Today, it would be SHGLaw318795 if I tried to get it again.”

Yes, SHGLaw318795@aol.com looks AWFUL, but you know what SHGLaw@aol.com says about you? (Cover your eyes if you’re easily offended.) It says you’re OLD. And since AOL mail pretty much sucks, it says that you don’t want to switch mail providers because a) it would be a “hassle” (translation: you’re entrenched) or b) it would require “learning a new system” (translation: you don’t know how to use computers).

If neither of these things are true, switch to something else STAT.

We would almost rather see an “unprofessional” address that at least had a bit of wit or humor to it than a stagnant one.

Not going to be shy about admitting that we judge people based on their e-mails.

What do you think?

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