Not so long ago, I carried out a small experiment among college under-graduates.
I was at a college in Penang to talk to some of their graduating students and I asked them suddenly: “What’s your email address?” I went up to each and everyone of them in the room, listening to them call out their email addresses to me.
As I walked back to the front of the lecture room, I told them the reason for my asking. I wanted to know how many of them had good, presentable email addresses. Almost all of them did, except for a small handful who adopted quite fanciful handles for their email names.
“If you want to write a proper resume, please make sure that the email address you use looks proper and professional. It’s best if the email address can incorporate your name or your initials but please…” I looked at some of the guilty ones in the eyes, “do not use fanciful names. They won’t go down well with the employers.”
It may be hip to use addresses like prettygirl@yahoo.com or wildboy@gmail.com when you are still studying but once you adopt a business-like approach to your career paths, your email contact details must also change accordingly.
With a fanciful email address, you risk not projecting the right image. Prospective employers may not take you too seriously and you wouldn’t want that to happen, would you?