“Uncool” Email Domain Prejudice

I recently received a email titled Yahoos and Hotmails Need Not to Apply.  Having an ‘uncool’ email domain could potential move your resume into the recycling box!

It never occurred to me that using a Hotmail account affected my online presence, both professionally and personally!

When I began my career, Hotmail was one of the first web based email providers.  Most emails were server based so you couldn’t access them unless you were on the school or company network.  Internet at home, well, most of us didn’t have the service. It was important for me to have access to my personal email from anywhere I had access to the internet, which was school or work.

Things have changed and I still have my personal Hotmail email address.  I heard and read that people are moving to Gmail but It’s all about simplicity with me.  It’s just easier to have one email address.  I use a PC and they are all on the Microsoft platform.  When I opened up my West Coast Origami and Cindy Ho Designs, it was natural for me use Hotmail.  Microsoft made it extremely easy to access them on the email program and keep them separated.  

Reading this article, a lot of readers seemed outraged and dismissing the point.  If one person is prejudiced to out-dated domain emails, there must be more who share this opinion.  As a freelancer, I cannot afford to lose potential customers.  Having that said, maybe those same potential customers may be more challenging to work with if they contacted me prior to reviewing my portfolio.  Challenging or not, would you want to miss a chance on potential clients?

This article influenced me to get a Gmail account.  Not that I’m happy about learning a new email system, but I’m working to build a good online presence. 

As for recruiting a candidate for a important position in your company?  Why would anyone dismiss a resume just because they had an ‘uncool’ email domain?   Whether it’s Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, all it means is that person knows how to set up an account.  Unless their user name is unprofessional like Ilovetogetdrunk, I don’t think it matters if that person uses Hotmail or Gmail would it?

The First Impression

 

The company I’m currently working for is on a hiring spree.  For the last week or so, there’s been a steady stream of candidates coming to my area where I sit.  I work for a manufacturing firm so part of the interview is not only meeting with your hopefully soon to be manager but a tour of the production floor so they get a sense of what you could be getting yourself into.

After the interviews, these are comments I’ve been overhearing:

• If he can’t arrive on time, I don’t want to see him! (he was 45 min late and didn’t call us)
• He has a lot of experience but didn’t seem interested in what we do
• He’s strong! Did you shake his hand?
• I think he might be better suited in the other role, let’s see if he’s interested
• He said these skills but after showing him our defective product he couldn’t point out what’s wrong with it
• I rate him 1 out of 5.  I’d like to hire him I’m worried he might get bored after a few months.  Do you think we can groom him for the assistant role if we hire him for this one?
• He was great, but then he casually swore in the 3^rd interview (he essentially had the job but this made us not hire him in the end)
• She had the drive, but not the experience.  I wish I could have hired her.
• The guy wore jeans!

Most of us never hear what is talked after the interviews.  However, the sampling of the list above just shows that every little thing you do affects the interviewer’s impression.  Most were good, but there were surprises, simply because the candidate didn’t know or realized his or her actions.

What first impressions do you make?

I love Instagram

My co-worker got me hooked onto this iPhone App.  It’s a free download one called Instagram.  It’s like Twitter, but instead of sharing the written thought, you share photos.

It’s real time photo sharing exactly when you want it.  I’ve been behind in my blog writing, photo uploads and Facebook simply because things are busy for me right now.  My Completely Random Photo Blog has been very ignored. 

Instagram is innovative and It’s all based on the notion that a picture truly equals a thousand words.  You can add filters to make them look retro or enhance them and share them with several social media sites.  All in the few minutes you are waiting for your cup of coffee to be served or in between meetings!

If you decide to download the App to your phones, you can follow me.  My user name is cindyhodesigns.

P.S. This is my own review.  I’m raving about the app because I really like it.  I’m spending more and more time away from my blogging and sometimes, I just want to share a quick picture with you!

They Attempted to Scam Me!

I received this spam email.  Upon reading the email more carefully, it’s actually a company stating if you pay them, they will help you get your website in higher rankings in search engines.

This is from email address pipparousseau@whchcar.com

This solicitation is to inform you that it’s time to send in your registration for WESTCOASTORIGAMI.COM.  We are a submission service and search engine ranking firm

Failure to complete this order by June 28, 2011 may result in the cancellation of this offer (making it difficult for your customers to locate you using search engines on the web)

WESTCOASTORIGAMI.COM registration will include search engine submission for 1 year.  You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated above unless you accept this offer by June 28, 2011.  This notice is not an invoice.  It is a courtesy reminder to register WESTCOASTORIGAMI.COM for search engine listing so that your customers can locate you on the web.

What really bothers me is how official looking it is and it had my phone number and address on it.  They had to look it up as you must declare that when you register a domain name.  It even had a pay now button on it.   They wanted $75 for a one year subscription.  

I actually checked the domain name  by manually typing www(dot)whchcar(dot).com and the front looks like a online website advertising car sells.  Not exactly a reputable search engine optimization service company

Please protect yourself! I just wanted to get this out there as knowledge give you power to protect yourself.  Please share this with others!