When I was 11, I collected rubber ducks, my favorite color was purple, and Blink-182 was trendy. So behold, my first email address — [email protected].

Tragically, this email address did not stand the test of time.

You too have probably come to the realization that your email address from the early 2000s is no longer cool. If you haven’t, allow me to drop some knowledge on you — no matter how impressive your credentials are, absolutely no one will take you seriously if you’re emailing them from [email protected].

Sorry, but that’s the world we live in.

If this is the first you’re hearing of this, have no fear. It’s pretty easy to set up a new email account. Your life does not have to be defined by your first email address, as long as you’re not the guy from this Quora thread who used [email protected].

There’s no recovering from that, but for everyone else, there is hope for you yet.

What does your email address tell recruiters?

If you’re a job seeker, your email address is one of the first touch points a hiring manager will have with you. It’s their first impression of your personal brand, and if your personal brand is baller4lyfe69, then all the power to you. But if you think your email address could be ruining you professionally and you’re not sure how or why, you’ve come to the right place.

As we all know, reveling in the mistakes of others never fails to make you feel better about your own, but you can also learn a thing or two in the process. With that in mind, let’s examine some of the most cringe-worthy email addresses of all time.

Pro tip: Don’t put 69 in your email address (if you don’t know why, I’m not here to explain that to you). But the real issue with this email address is the lack of any distinct identifiers.

The world is teeming with fat booty cuties. A recruiter would have no way of knowing which fat booty cutie the email was coming from, so they might end up giving the job to the wrong fat booty cutie.

Avoid confusion by letting your fat booty speak for itself, and use an email address with your first and last name in it instead.

Yes, you need to keep it simple

This email address succeeds where the last one fails because most people would remember meeting the candidate who was half shark, half girl. But regardless of your demographic background, it’s best to avoid referencing it in your email address.

Recruiters don’t need to know details about your age, religion, or great white shark parents to decide whether you’re qualified for the job. All in all, just keep it simple. First of all, change your password. Second of all, this email address simultaneously commits both of the offenses outlined above.

But more importantly, it highlights what is probably the most common email address faux pas in 2017 — it uses a distinctly unsexy hosting site.

What’s your hosting site? Do you use Gmail? Yahoo? God forbid, Hotmail? Sure, some employers probably couldn’t care less. But how about this CEO who said:

“If an applicant applies for a job with us and is still using Hotmail or Yahoo for email, they’re immediately eliminated.”

Don’t want to take his word for it? Here are the results of our recent Twitter poll on this topic: Help in landing that dream job

s you can see, the company email address got the most votes. But if you’re applying for jobs, you might want to think twice before listing that address on your resumé.

It’s likely that your employer has access to that account, so things could get awkward. You’re better off using a personal domain or a Gmail account for your job search.

If you have a personal vendetta against Gmail and making your own domain sounds like too much work, have no fear. We did another poll for some more hosting sites:Verizon was also included in this poll and didn’t get enough votes to be visible on this chart. But we do see some vindication for Yahoo after all!

So if you’re thinking “Holy shit, I just applied to 30 jobs from [email protected],” don’t panic. The good news is that setting up a new email address is easy and only takes a few minutes.

When job candidates make the switch, it puts them one step closer to landing that dream job.

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Authors
Vinayak Ranade

Vinayak Ranade is the founder and CEO of Drafted, the first referral network. Before that, he served as the director of mobile at Boston-based KAYAK. Vinayak holds a B.S and M.Eng in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Follow him on Twitter @pseudovirtual or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Emily Derrick

Emily Derrick works in marketing at Drafted, Inc., the first referral network. Connect with her on LinkedIn.