The topic has been covered a great deal already, so I'll just give some reminder pointers:
- Avoid using your company email address. One, you never know how long you're going to have that email, and two, you don't want to give potential employers the impression you are using company time for your personal job search activities.
- Avoid using an email from a service provider that may be perceived as "dated." This would certainly include AOL, but are there others? Is Hotmail considered "dated" at this point? What about Yahoo? Opinions differ on this. Many recommend using Gmail, which is of course a good option, but there are others, as well- Comcast, iCloud, etc.
- Avoid using an email that sounds like spam or is unclear. An email like [email protected] sounds a bit awkward, and I can tell you from experience that if the person doesn't have their Display Name set correctly, it can be very hard to retrieve emails from this person.
- Avoid using an email that is inappropriate. I probably shouldn't have to explain this, but I do see them out there. [email protected] is best kept for use with friends- or, why not just create a more professional-sounding one for use with all?
- It is beneficial to use an email with your first and last name in it. However, if your name is popular, and the email with it has been taken, you can create a modified one. You can add the abbreviation for your degree ([email protected]), a reference to your occupation ([email protected]), or something else related to your career.
Give thought to using an appropriate email address in your job search that makes it easy to find you just by the email address alone.
