Your email address is often the very first thing an employer reads about you, before your name and before your experience. It takes fifteen minutes to fix and it lasts your whole career.
Two applications arrive. Which one gets opened first?
What happens: It gets read, but the employer has already formed an opinion. Some will not open the attachment at all. This is unfair, and it still happens.
What happens: Nothing stands out, which is exactly right. The employer moves straight to your CV and judges you on that.
Use your real name. If your name is taken, add a number that means something to you but is not your birth year, or add your city or your field. Avoid nicknames, avoid the year you were born, and avoid anything about your love life.
Gmail is free and works on every phone. Use it unless you already have something better.
My name is very common and everything is taken
Try adding a middle initial, a full stop between names, or your profession. thabo.j.mokoena, thabo.mokoena.sa and thabomokoena.admin all read as professional. Numbers are fine too, just not your birth year, because it tells employers your age before they meet you.
Should I make a new address or fix my old one?
Make a new one. You cannot rename an email address. Keep the old one for friends, and use the new one for every application from now on. Set it up on your phone so both arrive in the same app.
Before you move on
- Create an address using your real name
- Add it to your phone so you get notifications
- Put it on your CV and update it on Nasi Ispani
Check what you know
3 questions. Have a look at what this lesson asks.
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