Yes, you definitely need a professional email address for your resume. Silly or rude email addresses are a huge turn-off for recruiters and hiring managers.
If you are planning on sending out lots of job applications via email and signing up for job recommendations on sites like LinkedIn, it is a good idea to create a separate email address so that your personal account isn’t overloaded with recommended job openings and automated replies. That way, your job hunting emails are kept separate and you can turn off notifications from once you land a job.
Here are some tips to watch for to make sure your email address isn’t the reason you are not getting call-backs:
- Use your first and last name (for example, affleck@gmail.com)
- If your name is common or already taken, you could include ‘career’ or a similar positive word (e.g. career@gmail.com)
- Avoid silly email addresses (like ducky89@gmail.com)
- Don’t add random numbers to your email because they make it more difficult for the hiring manager to remember. Instead, try variations on your name (like bengeza.affleck@gmail.com, b.affleck @gmail.com, or benjaminaffleck@gmail.com)
- Don’t add your birth year to your email address (affleck1972@gmail.com or ben.affleck72@gmail.com) because it could lead to age discrimination
