Does your Email Address
say "Don't Hire Me"?

If you want to work from home you should know what your email address is saying to Prospective Employers.

By Ellen Shirley for Work-from-Home.org

Now that you want to work from home, you may never even meet your boss for an interview. Even so, you’re being checked out, from your work experience to your email address.

In the old days, smart interviewees were well-groomed, had a fresh hair cut, power dressed and showed up fifteen minutes early. If it felt like everything from your outfit to your breath, your posture to your handshake, was under the microscope and being checked out carefully, your feelings may have been right. Some large employers even covertly videotaped or observed candidates in order to more closely analyze their movements and behaviors.

Whew, thank goodness those days are gone! Memories of those nasty interviews makes working from home just that much sweeter. More often than not, when you work from home you don't have any of those interview hassles.

But that doesn't mean you don't need to make a good impression when you contact a potential employer!

Now, instead of your smile and handshake there's the tone of your emails. Instead of your outfit, there's your resume. Instead of the interview there may be online testing. And instead of meeting you face to face, your employer meets you through your email address.

So make sure your email address says what you want it to say about you! In personal email use any email address you'd like, but in professional email, be professional!

Don’t us little webonyms… Getting a job working from home may be funny but NEVER type LOL in an email to your boss.

The best email addresses to use with employers are email addresses that reflect your name very professionally and are hosted with a real email company, not a free one. Such as roberta.smith@anyrealemailcompany.com. Free email addresses say “temporary”, and “not serious”. Actual hosted email addresses say “Permanent”, “stable”, “pays his bills” and “serious”. If a private email provider is not an option for you, try to get an email address with Yahoo or Google, not Hotmail or some of the other providers that are not as reliable or have a 'discount' reputation.

If you can't or don't wish to use your name, at least choose something that makes a positive impression on an employer. An email that reflects a sport or an innocuous activity such as reading or gardening is suitable. Bookworm_Rita_Haywood or Green_Thumbelina or okay, but using your full name is still the most professional.

NEVER use an email address that is negative, dark, aggressive, violent, angry, suggestive, political, activist,-sounding, anti-social, racial, cynical and/or contains profane language or language in bad taste. All of the following examples would make poor choices for email addresses to use with a potential employer: biker_chick_... pharm_chick… hot_chick… luscious_chick… princess_chick… all bad choices. Lookoutbehindyou@... snow_boy@... green_alan@... brickhousemama@... More bad choices.

And pleeeese, don't try to trick your potential boss into thinking you're some sort of super candidate with an email address designed to accomplish that impression. Email addresses like productive_bob@... or honest_rita@... will come off as dishonest. You may as well have shot yourself in the foot.

Remember that your email address may provide your employer with great insight into your personality and how you view yourself. If you want that work from home job, make sure that impression is positive and professional, right down to your email address.