What Your E-Mail Address Says About You

Before applying to that dream job, or even just to that part-time gig at a coffee shop, keep in mind that these places and hiring managers will try to get a sense of who you are just by the e-mail address you provide.

Of course much else goes into the hiring process, but if you think you're going to get a job with an e-mail address like "luhmybae@yahoo.com," what this indicates is not only could a monkey beat you at Words With Friends, but also that you aren't anywhere close to being "job material." Cutesy and unprofessional is a huge mistake. The most professional e-mails out there are personal, to the point and about as simple as your first and last name.

But that's just what comes before the @ sign. Let's take a look at the place where ISPs and overall computer skill levels meet. (Because it's very rare to be hired without skills, am I right?)

Gmail Users:

This isn't your first rodeo. You've been roaming the web since your first "Got Mail," having had a different domain for every age that was most appropriate at the time. Next step: your own domain, "soandso@soandso.com."

Hotmail Users:

You are often mistaken for a spam account, or you just use this as a throw away account to give to the sales associates at Victoria's Secret when they repeatedly ask you about an e-mail address for “sales.”

The Hotmail user has been using Hotmail since 2004, when their parents created their first email address. With no other address, you are perceived as someone knowing very little about computers and have more frustrations with Spyware than anyone else in the year 2013.

Aol Users:

You more than likely have the same "Welcome to the Internet" e-mail sitting in your inbox, beneath the thousands of e-mails to and from grandma with attachments of kitten pictures. You are perceived as someone that either pays very little attention to the workings of the Internet, or someone that is approaching 70. With that said, computers may not be your strong suit.

Yahoo! Users:

Although rated as second most beloved brand by Americans according to a recent APCO worldwide survey, Yahoo in a professional setting is sort of a no-no (although much better sounding than Aol and Hotmail).

As a Yahoo user, you typically resonate in the mind of hiring managers as someone that is about to send a plethora of chain e-mails, threatening bad luck if they don't forward to fifteen thousand of their closest friends.

For more of a demographic breakdown, Hunch, a web app that provides specialized recommendations, surveyed some of their users to see which characteristics defined users of different webmail providers.

Top Photo Credit: Getty Images