How your email address can affect your chances of getting hired

A new study has shed light on email addresses demonstrating that an applicant's email address can greatly impact first impressions and affect one's chances of getting hired.

The study conducted by VU University, Amsterdam, showed that an informal email address have more chances of getting rejected than a more formal email address when sending an online resume.

An informal email address includes slang, cute, or made-up names instead of the applicant's real name.

In the article "What a Difference Your Email Makes: Effects of Informal Email Addresses in Online Resume Screening", the authors describe how the formal or informal nature of an applicant's email address impacts a recruiter's hirability perceptions.

The researchers also compared the importance of the email address to spelling errors and the typeface used in the email in passing judgment on an online resume.

Editor-in-Chief Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN, Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, California and Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium , asserted that they all had unconscious biases, and first impressions, as they knew, were often difficut to change.

The study is published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.