'Wacky' e-mail addresses deter HR managers

Job-hunting with a less than serious email address can backfire as HR managers may not take the applicant seriously, according to a recent report.

Job applicants who use "wacky" email addresses are far less likely to get the job according to research that polled UK human resources managers.

Yahoo! Mail discovered the majority of HR managers will just disregard an application if it comes from an address that casts the applicant in a less than serious light. Two of the examples provided by Yahoo! are "elvisthechicken2003" and "LarryLoonyLamb".

While most people now find it difficult to find an ISP that can provide "yourname@ISP.com" due to the fact that most common names — and even most not-so-common names — have been taken, Alick Mighall, head of production at Yahoo! Mail, urged users to play it straight when choosing their email address.

He said: "Applicants with wacky email addresses may stand out from the crowd but probably to their detriment in the work place. It's best to keep your email boring and businesslike when job hunting."

Surprisingly, however, the answer may not be to send your CV from your work address. While the convention is invariably sensible, 36 percent of HR managers believed it was inappropriate and may harm the chances of the applicant.

Similarly, sending CVs from work is a common cause of "digital blunders", with the potential to send the CV internally always a threat, or for it to be picked up by system administrators in the event of some kind of network problem or wrongly addressed reply.

Mighall said: "At best, job applicants who send their CVs from their work email will be seen to have poor judgement. At worst they will be earmarked as potential email abusers, especially since many companies are tightening up on their internal email rules."

The survey found that only nine percent of HR managers polled would take no action if they discovered an employee using their email address to look for another job.

Similarly, more than a quarter (26 percent) said they would start monitoring the employee's email address more closely if they believed the work email was being used for sending out job applications.