Professional Email Usernames

LNick939 on 13/05/2019 - 11:32
Last edited 13/05/2019 - 12:00

Upon finally getting around to applying for jobs in the professional sector, I came across an issue with email creation. My current email is not super professional and I want to create a suitable username, however, both my first and last names are very common.

For example, I have tried:

RobertSmith
Robert.Smith
R.Smith
RSmith
RobertS
Robert.S

Still no luck, even when replacing the period with a dash (-).
I also have no middle name, so I was also questioning whether to make one up to make more combinations.
I really do not want to join the 'number people' but I fear I have no other choice. The 'number people' for example is Robert.SmithXXX@…

What do you recommend? .

Cheers,
Nick (not Robert).

Education & Work

Comments

  • kusama on 13/05/2019 - 11:43
    +3

    Dots in gmail don't count so you could be R.Smith and receive RSmith emails.

    Could do middle name RobertJamesSmith, or try other providers https://www.technorms.com/14035/10-free-email-service-provid…

    Or you could buy your own domain name and use that for email.

    • Nick939 on 13/05/2019 - 11:51
      +1

      Good to know I have the option to buy my own domain name.

      Cheers.

    • cfuse on 14/05/2019 - 17:39

      Not only do dots not count, gmail supports plus notation too. Something like [email protected] is valid. Plus notation is useful with filters.

      Be warned, the email specification and email implementations are two very different things. Just because gmail supports plus notation doesn't mean everyone else does. I've had plus notation emails refused by webforms, and theoretically a misbehaving email server could prevent the transmission of an email addressed in that manner (never had that problem).

      Fun side note: you probably don't want a generic name on a big email provider anyway. I was a very early adopter of gmail and as a result I have a [email protected] address. I get a shitload of email for people that are too stupid to know their own email address (yes really), and even more from companies that don't bother to check their users own the email addresses provided (which was a solved problem 30 years ago and any professional org would know that). I've been sent all sorts of private and privileged communications. It's shocking how many companies send you passwords and enough information for identity theft.

      The real solution is what you wrote: get your own domain. It's a PITA just for an email, but it solves the problem once and for all.

      • lainey13 on 19/05/2019 - 14:44

        Feel your pain. I have [email protected] and while it is pretty damn rare I'm not the only one with it in the whole world so I get all kinds of firstname lastnamenotmine emails. Painful.

  • abb on 13/05/2019 - 11:43
    +3

    Some options to consider:

    Try different email providers (e.g. a paid one will have way less people to compete with than the free ones).
    Buy your own domain (about $20/yr).
    Add a place name or job title - RobertSmith_Sydney for example.

    • Nick939 on 13/05/2019 - 11:52

      I have tried a few email providers that I prefer to use but all have the same result.

      Buying my own domain isn't as expensive as I thought!

      • andrek on 14/05/2019 - 07:20

        You'll also need to pay for email hosting (Office 365, GSuite, etc). https://gsuite.google.com.au/intl/en_au/pricing.html for example.

        • jetblack on 14/05/2019 - 12:05
          +2

          Not entirely true, but you have to be willing to play around with some settings. I've set up mine to run through my Gmail account, so I log in with a gmail address, but I can send and receive as [email protected].

          If you're at all comfortable with doing some basic googling and tweaking settings, you can DIY easily enough. If you're not, I could help.

  • dust on 13/05/2019 - 11:43
    +2

    Initial of your middle name?

    • Nick939 on 13/05/2019 - 11:51

      I have no middle name, but I am pondering the idea to make one up to make more combinations.

      • Nugs on 13/05/2019 - 12:00

        use a Z
        .

      • outlander on 14/05/2019 - 12:12

        Make it Danger

  • Hybroid on 13/05/2019 - 11:46
    -2

    Signup to iCloud and get a @me.com address that's available. Worth a try.

    Else, just stick a number on the end as most people do. [email protected]

    • Nick939 on 13/05/2019 - 11:57

      Will consider this in my options. Thanks for the tip.

      • Hybroid on 13/05/2019 - 12:10

        I think you're overthinking it. No one cares what your personal e-mail address is on your CV, provided it's not intentionally offensive/racist etc.If you want it to be [email protected] then so be it.

        • altomic on 13/05/2019 - 12:43
          +7

          kudos to anyone that has "69" or "420" in their email address

          /s

        • [Deactivated] on 14/05/2019 - 10:33
          +1

          I disagree.
          I had a real estate agent once whose personal e-mail included the phrase "bigboy".
          If someone applied for a job with me and it included that I wouldn't even call him to interview.

        • rbrb on 15/05/2019 - 13:21

          You are wrong on that one. I work in IT and any technician's CV that has a dumb email get instantly discarded.

          Having you own domain is a huge plus point as it is not only professional but it at least looks like you know what you are doing.

          Using a hotmail, live, aol account is also a way to get ignored.

          For the sake of $10-20 a year for a domain and $5-6 a month for Office365/G-Suite it's a no brainer to set up your own.

  • geek001 on 13/05/2019 - 11:46
    +13

    RobertSmith314159@… because I love pie.

    • [Deactivated] on 13/05/2019 - 13:28
      +1

      You're a true geek :)

  • Seraphin7 on 13/05/2019 - 11:47
    +7

    You mean [email protected] just isn't cutting it anymore?

    • Nick939 on 13/05/2019 - 12:03
      +2

      I’m afraid my bundy days are behind me.

  • [Deactivated] on 13/05/2019 - 12:00
    +10

    hey Nick (not Robert),

    you should try [email protected]

    • Nick939 on 13/05/2019 - 12:06

      Hah. I may aswell throw my job applications in the trash!

  • brad1-8tsi on 13/05/2019 - 12:03
    +6

    May Mr at the front?

    For those with a middle name, don't just use the initial.

    I have a namesake in San Diego. His email is the same as mine except he has "a" at the end for his middle name Andrew. I get lots of his emails including the insurance renewals on his 5 properties, 2 cars and a Harley; the valuation on his fiance's engagement ring (USD 120k), his child's enrollment in a christian based pre-school and the pron sites that he has registered with. I managed to contact him about 5 years back and just forward them on to him.

  • olivecheese on 13/05/2019 - 12:04
    +1

    Mine is [email protected] (but not Smith, or Robert) - you could try that?

  • djones145 on 13/05/2019 - 12:11
    +1

    I use a random one, good conversation starter in interviews lol

  • Cheaplikethebird on 13/05/2019 - 12:15
    +1

    I got in on Gmail while it was still invite only and so managed to nab [email protected] (I'm not Mark Smith, but same format for a similarly common name)

    It's a blessing and a curse. It looks great on my resume but I also get heaps of random e-mails for the M. Smiths of the world.

    • cfuse on 14/05/2019 - 17:44
      +1

      "It's a blessing and a curse."

      I have the same situation with gmail and after literally a decade of the kind of bullshit you're talking about pornhub premium sent me login details. Finally blessed.

      • Cheaplikethebird on 14/05/2019 - 18:29

        Hahahah, I hope you know this story will now be told in all my future explanations of the perils of generic e-mails.

  • qwerty on 13/05/2019 - 12:25
    +1

    Robertsmithsemail @gmail.com

  • cotro on 13/05/2019 - 12:28

    A lot companies will have a policy of using the minimal amount of your first name, and then your last name and work from there (you could reverse the process also)

    e.g. rsmith, rosmith, robsmith, robesmith, robersmith, robertsmith

  • bdl on 13/05/2019 - 12:31
    +5

    [email protected]

  • pformag on 13/05/2019 - 12:33

    rreborhtims

  • FireRunner on 13/05/2019 - 12:34
    +3

    [email protected]

  • Sunshines bright on 13/05/2019 - 13:23
    -7

    I know you want to avoid numbers but an idea is to use your birthday monthyear or datemonth or datemonthyear or yearmonth at the end, git the point?

    • Cheaplikethebird on 13/05/2019 - 14:03
      +1

      This is a troll yeah? Do not put any part of your birth date in your e-mail address.

      • Sunshines bright on 16/05/2019 - 20:02

        my apologies being from America where your identity is tied to a Social Security Number and not your Birthdate, I was totally unaware of the implications till I spoke to an Aussie friend who explained that all things here are tied to your birthdate. Forgive my faux pas!

        NOT A TROLL!!!

        • bremo on 17/05/2019 - 08:36

          I think it’s more to do with giving recruiters a clue as to your age, giving room to potential ageism when going for a job

  • o53djz7qTPY4der on 13/05/2019 - 13:24
    +1

    I just affix "00" to my email addresses. Eg you could try rs00@….

    Check out proton mail too.

  • [Deactivated] on 13/05/2019 - 13:58
    +3

    I had a lecturer whose name was Irene Hannah Adcok. She had the best email address. It was doubly funny because she didn't look at all like the type who would be interested in men.

    • pegaxs on 13/05/2019 - 14:50

      [email protected] or [email protected] if most educational institutions are the benchmark…

      (ps: not my neg)

      • [Deactivated] on 13/05/2019 - 14:52
        +1

        Format for my uni's email address at the time was
        [email protected] so for this particular staff it was… 😳

        • [Deactivated] on 13/05/2019 - 19:49
          +1

          Where 'x' is the first letter in your name , in her case = i
          Where 'y' is the first letter in your middle name, in her case = h
          lastname, in her case = adcok

          Put it all together …@universityname.edu.au

    • [Deactivated] on 14/05/2019 - 22:27

      Funny, and name also a reasonable tongue-twister.
      Name of obscure actress Peggy Babcock considered possibly the ultimate and for good reason. Even three times fast is real challenge…
      https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/494140

    • Kiz on 16/05/2019 - 11:57
      +2

      My previous boss worked at Cadbury. The email format was first three letters of last name and initial of first name @cadbury. His name was was Terry Shaddock…. his email shat@cadbury…. enjoy the chocolate!

  • pegaxs on 13/05/2019 - 14:45
    +2

    [email protected] should suffice…

    I find on job applications, the mere use of gmail/hotmail/outlook looks a bit tacky. I ended up buying my own domain and some very very basic email only hosting for it. Because [email protected] looks better than [email protected].

    And having your own domain is great for setting up multiple eBay accounts or directing unwanted spam. [email protected] is great for weeding out garbage spam.

    • Donaldhump on 13/05/2019 - 15:48
      +2

      i think the opposite, no offense, I would think you were pretentious if you felt the need to have a domain of your own name

      gmail/hotmail accounts are fine in my opinion

  • havebeerbelywillsumo on 13/05/2019 - 15:40

    What about 1 instead of "i" and/or 5 instead of "s", IMHO people will tend to "see" the letter instead of the number? Obviously also 0 for "o", 3 for "e". Even 1 for "t" at a pinch.

    ….and agree with pegaxs for hotmail at least. My memory (rightly or wrongly) tells me hotmail used to be a real spam-magnet.

  • Donaldhump on 13/05/2019 - 15:50
    +7

    [email protected]

  • kingsville on 13/05/2019 - 16:29
    +1

    what about [email protected]

  • John Kimble on 13/05/2019 - 17:12
    +1

    How about

    MrRobert.Smith@
    Contact.Robert.Smith@
    Email.Robert.Smith@

  • wei13 on 13/05/2019 - 17:56
    +2

    I use [email protected]

    ie. [email protected]

    However this may not be appropriate depending on your profession.

  • Vote for Pedro on 13/05/2019 - 23:14

    Change your name to something unique. The you can get a gmail account with your name, maybe

  • Nick939 on 14/05/2019 - 00:20
    +7

    Thank you everyone for the tips. I have decided to purchase a high yield investment vehicle to land me the job.

    Cheers,
    Rob.

  • Third_Gear on 14/05/2019 - 06:57

    Use your mobile number @gmail.com.

  • Cliche Guevara on 14/05/2019 - 12:36
    +1

    How about RobertSmith(NotFromTheCure)@gmail.com

  • Brendoo on 14/05/2019 - 13:07

    Not sure what kind of job you are going for, but my suggestion for simplicity is to just go with adding the numbers after your name. Try to find some more memorable numbers if you can. Use Gmail, it’s extreneky reliable.

    I cannot imagine any employer who would take that negatively. I certainly would not.

    If you want to have your own domain name later then you can. A .com domain (and many others) cost about $20 per year. You can then link that to Gmail for I think about $5 a month (paid to Google) or something like that. OR you can sign up for website hosting with a provider like GoDaddy and have yourself a website as well and use “email forwarding” to your Gmail account but with your domain name and not have to pay Google. The hosting/email forwarding would be around $10 per month.

    You need to be a little bit technical to do the above, bit it’s not hard.

  • kale chips suck on 14/05/2019 - 14:33

    Do not use Goddady, they are rapacious on renewals.

    https://ventraip.com.au/domain-names/extensions/id-au/

    Grab one of those. The id.au namespace exists for the exact problem you have. I think the fee includes email but I'm not 100% sure so you'd want to check with their support.

    The other, cheaper, option is to use your ISP-provided email address. Or set up another one with them just for job applications. That should be free.

  • cfuse on 14/05/2019 - 17:46

    Do not use your ISP's email. You can and will change ISP's and then you're screwed.

    • kale chips suck on 15/05/2019 - 20:44

      I agree about the ISP email leading to lock in, except the OP is asking about getting an email address for using specifically in job applications.

      Unless he changes ISPs whilst looking for a job, it won't matter. He can just abandon it later.

  • anastasiastarz on 16/05/2019 - 04:07
    +1

    Hello.Robert.Smith

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