Choosing a professional email address?

November 23, 2010 3:19 PM

I have my full name as a domain name, and I'd like to start using it as my email address on my resume and for work purposes. Should my email address be joey@joeyshabadoo, j.shabadoo@joeyshabadoo, admin@joeyshabadoo or something else? And does it make any kind of difference, or am I just overthinking@plateofbeans?
posted by Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo to Grab Bag (40 answers total)

You should do [e-mail]
posted by nomadicink at 3:20 PM on November 23, 2010

I'd stay away from "admin," unless you're in tech/IT.
posted by griphus at 3:21 PM on November 23, 2010

Best answer: Seconding "me." Also, before you use this domain name for your resumes, ensure that you're not using an email address at that domain (even another one) for anything sketchy that might come up in a google search. If you're using [e-mail] for resumes and [e-mail] for (say) posting to flasher forums, it's going to reflect badly on you if domain.com is something absolutely, unquestionably associated with YOU, even if it comes up with bar@ instead of foo@.
posted by davejay at 3:25 PM on November 23, 2010

I would go with Joe/[e-mail]. "[e-mail]" seems pretty unprofessional to me.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:26 PM on November 23, 2010 [9 favorites]

You're mostly overthinking, but for resume/work purposes, I would go with joey@joeyshabadoo
posted by Night_owl at 3:26 PM on November 23, 2010

Depending on your hosting, you can set up the server to direct any and all emails to your inbox. Sort of a catch-all.

That way if you change your mind later, old addresses will still work.
posted by lampshade at 3:27 PM on November 23, 2010

Best answer: You need at least 3 (choose one that the other 2 forward to):

joey@joeyshabadoo
jshabadoo@joeyshabadoo
joey.shabadoo@joeyshabadoo

These are the most common protocols, so if someone has to guess what your email address is, they have at least 3 chances to get it right.

As for the email address you use as your primary contact, use the shortest, easiest one:

joey@joeyshabadoo

It's easy to remember, right?

You may want to "wall off" your primary email contact. If it's open to the world, people may try to hack into it. So perhaps keep a "hidden" email address that you forward all email to, including banking statements etc. Perhaps consider setting up a failsafe hidden backup email address on your domain.

These should not be "admin@" or "info@", but something that is hard to guess: "13rfhggh@joeyshabadoo"; hard to identify, hard to crack.

For the primary email address(es), have them delete emails instantly (but make sure you have these backup accounts).
posted by KokuRyu at 3:28 PM on November 23, 2010 [8 favorites]

I agree that "me" seems unprofessional. I would go with [e-mail].
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 3:29 PM on November 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

I do this with my name, and I use mail@. It seems to instinctively make sense when mentioned in conversation.
posted by jbickers at 3:30 PM on November 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

Don't do me@. It is really confusing when spoken, as in over the phone or to people at events, and when you're using it for work that's exactly what you don't want.

I'm [e-mail] and that works well for me. If you're in a soft profession like, I dunno, social media or PR or modern accounting, I suggest hello@.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:33 PM on November 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

I agree that "me" seems unprofessional

Interestingly, when giving that address to freelance clients, they smile and it becomes a minute point of good conversation.

Professional is defined by what you do, not your name so much.
posted by nomadicink at 3:35 PM on November 23, 2010

Best answer: I use [e-mail] for my professional work.

The way I see it is two ways:

A) it just sounds weird to tell someone "Send that to me at me-at-myfullname.com".
B) It also sounds weird for someone else to say "So, I should send that to you at me-at-etcetc."
C) You reenforce your name by repeating it in the email address. You want people to remember your name when you send resumes to them.

Just a tip, while I go with my full first name (Robert) rather than a diminutive (Bob, Rob, Bobby, etc), many people like to call me by those names in a familiar fashion. So, after an important client, who referred to me as Rob, was sending all his email down the memory hole to [e-mail], I had all of the possible variations of my name feed back into my real email address.
posted by aristan at 3:37 PM on November 23, 2010 [3 favorites]

errr... that was obviously three ways.
posted by aristan at 3:38 PM on November 23, 2010

I agree that "me" seems unprofessional

That was my thought as well, but it may depend on your profession. In my profession, it would be unprofessional to have any humour involved in the professional presentation of myself. Unless that's clearly acceptable in yours, I'd avoid it.

name@firstnamelastname is the best bet.
posted by kch at 3:40 PM on November 23, 2010

nthing [e-mail]

me @ just seems kooky.
posted by fixedgear at 3:55 PM on November 23, 2010

I vote [e-mail]. Really, the difference between joey@ and me@ when looking for work is as close to zip as you could possibly imagine.
posted by wilful at 3:56 PM on November 23, 2010

Best answer: Professional is defined by what you do, not your name so much.

I totally agree, but I think that choosing your email address is something that you do, and choosing "[e-mail]" bespeaks an unprofessional laxity verging on moral turpitude. That said, I do have an address of "[e-mail]" so I can understand the appeal of frivolous emails.

I like mail@joeyshabadoo, too, which someone suggested above.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:59 PM on November 23, 2010

I like joey@... But I'm not that invested.

One note for my domains both personal and professional I tend to alias out quite a few different variations. So joey@... and me@... and j@... all would get sent to whatever you use as your default. That way you can have some fun with it and if you prefer me@ for friends but joey@ for work then you're good to go.

(slight aside but I usually let Google Apps do my email for the domains I host and they make aliases such as this quite easy)
posted by bitdamaged at 4:01 PM on November 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

It'll be all of the above, as you rotate the addresses as they become overwhelmed with spam. I've been through about five variations.
posted by orthogonality at 4:01 PM on November 23, 2010

I'm partial to plain old [e-mail] or contact@. Personally I would avoid joey@joey or me@, I think they are both awkward looking and awkward sounding.
posted by tracert at 4:04 PM on November 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: [e-mail]

FYI, the way gmail handles the threaded conversations means that when you have an email conversation going back and forth between you and another person, you'll see their name and "me" in the from area, where "me" is representing yourself. If you are corresponding with someone using the me@domain convention who does not have a personal name set up in their mail client this will show up as the mail coming from "me" which, since gmail uses this for something else, is confusing. Conversations look like they're between you and yourself.

As someone who gets email from people using the me@domain convention, I find it problematic for this reason. So, if you go this way, make sure you have your name listed someplace, otherwise people looking for email from you in their gmail inbox will never be able to find it.
posted by jessamyn at 4:15 PM on November 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

I use [e-mail]
posted by sauril at 4:28 PM on November 23, 2010

In my industry, the mostly unspoken standard is [e-mail]. As artisan says, "You reinforce your name by repeating it in the email address. You want people to remember your name."
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:31 PM on November 23, 2010

I'm also in the [e-mail] camp, and I think me@ is rather unprofessional-looking (though I don't know if I'd go so far as to suggest it verges on moral turpitude...) (...?...) and very casual. But depending on the nature of your business, that might work for you.

I definitely agree with the suggestion upthread about setting up a catchall so that email sent to other addresses at your domain will come through.
posted by Gator at 4:49 PM on November 23, 2010

I use mail@ - seems the best one to me.
posted by jontyjago at 5:07 PM on November 23, 2010

I use my initials... so if my name were Blue Mustard, my address is [e-mail]. I like it because it's short.
posted by blue mustard at 6:04 PM on November 23, 2010

"joey@". The domain name, even with your name in it like that, represents the Joey Shabadoo organization. So people will email Joey-at-that-domain.

"mail" and "me" will lead to confusion when you're reading things to people ("mail WHAT at joeyshabadoo.com?")
posted by mendel at 6:20 PM on November 23, 2010

[e-mail]

Too cute?
posted by missmobtown at 6:57 PM on November 23, 2010

I use me@ - but it's a personal account.
posted by jmevius at 7:24 PM on November 23, 2010

"me@" is not by any means a "convention". In fact, this is the first I am hearing of it.

I vote for a well-chosen neutral word as the name before the domain - [e-mail] has just the right level of intrigue, and it is euphonic and alliterative to boot.
posted by yclipse at 8:03 PM on November 23, 2010

I use my initials... so if my name were Blue Mustard, my address is [e-mail]. I like it because it's short.

Yeah, definitely this.
posted by 5Q7 at 8:35 PM on November 23, 2010

Response by poster: Well, consensus seems to be joey@joeyshabadoo, so I think that's the one I'll be using.

You guys have raised some interesting points about the varying emails, so I will probably also play around with google apps and create some alternatives like jshabadoo, joe, js, joeyshabadoo and, because I can't resist, fancyladmcslapbottom.

Thanks everyone!
posted by Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo at 8:50 PM on November 23, 2010

Use your initials. I use [e-mail]
posted by AugustWest at 9:07 PM on November 23, 2010

One solution a friend of mine has is to check all the email coming into his server, even to accounts that don't exists. If I want to contact him, I email him at [e-mail]. He knows it's from me and emails me back. I don't know how technical this is, but if you have the know-how I always thought it was a good idea.

So [e-mail] is all the email from company 1. comapany2@yourdomian is from company 2. [e-mail] is all the offers off of monster.com. I'm not sure quite how professional this looks, but the idea does appeal to me.
posted by Hactar at 9:19 PM on November 23, 2010

I can't tell if "[e-mail]" and "[e-mail]" are for real, but I recommend that you make sure there isn't anything....amusing about your initials or other shortened versions of your name before committing to something. Speaking as someone who has been there.
posted by naoko at 10:40 PM on November 23, 2010 [3 favorites]

Oh, I get it now, FML = "First Middle Last" and are not AugustWest's actual initials. Point remains that "First Middle Last" was not the first thing I thought of.
posted by naoko at 4:07 AM on November 24, 2010

I often use [e-mail]. It's friendly, casual without being unprofessional, and makes people feel all welcome before they even send their email.
posted by finitejest at 9:04 AM on November 24, 2010

I use [e-mail], as my actual account. I do capture all the email *@firstname.com though (bless gmail spam filter) and that makes it very easy to set up throwaway accounts for anything, since it's @firstname.com will still get through to my primary inbox, without any other work.
posted by defcom1 at 5:57 PM on November 24, 2010

I've used "info" more commonly than anything else lately, but may have to rethink that strategy after reading this thread.
posted by leftcoastmike at 4:12 PM on November 26, 2010

Professional is defined by what you do, not your name so much.

Of course, but right now it is near impossible to find a job or even get a call-back in some cases. Having what appears (to some) to be a goofy email address might get your name off the list.
posted by getawaysticks at 4:11 PM on November 27, 2010