Wacky email addresses will keep you out of work

And using a work address for job hunting may leave you looking for work...

Job applicants who use 'wacky' email addresses are far less likely to get the job according to research which polled UK HR managers. Yahoo! Mail discovered the majority of HR managers will just disregard an application if it comes from an address which casts the applicant in a less than serious light. Two of the examples provided by Yahoo! are "elvisthechicken2003" and "LarryLoonyLamb@yahoo.co.uk". While most people now find it difficult to find an ISP which 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 business-like 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 per of HR manager 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 per cent 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 per cent) 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. What are your views on this subject? What would you do or not do? Let us know by emailing editorial@silicon.com.