A few weeks ago, I was perusing a thread on Reddit regarding job searching and was a little surprised when a recruiter mentioned that applicants should use a Gmail email address when job hunting. Then several others agreed with him. He went on to explain that it demonstrates a candidate knows how to use up-to-date technology. I posted this on my Facebook page the following day. The responses varied from “great idea, will do” to “that is ridiculous!”
I have been suggesting it to my clients who do not already have Gmail. I let them know it is also a good way to keep all your job search emails in one place for easy tracking. No lost or missed emails!
I was reading another thread this weekend where the subject came up again and this is what I discovered. I included some of the answers from recruiters and hiring managers here:
“It’s pretty arbitrary. But for some reason, Gmail accounts just look more professional…”
“They’re shorter, for one. Plus most people have a higher opinion of Google, Gmail is the superior service, etc.”
“Thousands of companies, including many, many tech startups, use Gmail to host their corporate email.”
“I hire people and work through email almost exclusively. If I see that your name is @yahoo or @hotmail or @aol then I assume you don’t use computers often which is probably not the message you want to send… Change to Gmail.”
“Thousands of tech companies use Gmail as their corporate email provider. It’s cutting edge and built by a company nearly universally held in high regard for being innovative.”
“Having a Gmail account means that you are much more likely to know how to Google a piece of information and can make use of other technologies that Google offers for free i.e Picasa, Google Drive, etc.”
One human resources professional did note:
“The only reason I would recommend that you consider Gmail is because I have noticed that in general, hotmail and yahoo messages end up in my junk mail folders more often than Gmail messages.”
What does seem to be a factor is how much technical know-how is required for the position. The other option they liked was applicants who used personal domains: John@Smith.com.
If it can’t hurt and might help, I suggest you get yourself a Gmail address.
