Is Your Email Address Showing YOUR Age? Get Hip With It!

I was going through a number of resumes this past week and I started to laugh at some of the email addresses.  Why? Because some of them just shout, “Hello there, I am really old and out of it and still driving a horse and buggy too!” I have been meaning to write a short Blog on this now for a few years, but now due to newer, cooler email addresses that have been growing popular, I felt the time has come for me to address (pun intended) this. 

Don’t feel badly if you have one of these ancient emails, simply get rid of it and get a hipper one for applying to positions on LinkedIn, Job Boards and certainly for displaying on your resume.  Attached to the old one? Then go ahead and keep it for your personal use to lesson the disruption of having to change all your business accounts and your routine emails to long time friends.

So what Emails show your age? 
Here is the list:

• msn.com
• hotmail.com
• aol.com
• bellsouth.com
• att.com
• yahoo.com (that use to be a young one 6 years ago..not now)
• cox.net
• roadrunner.com (do they still have that one?)
• earthlink.com

Some of you are probably now offended! So sorry, but just think of it…do you know anyone under 30 that has a msn.com or earthlink.com email box?  Exactly!  My 81 year old Dad has an msn.com email address! I just went back to look at one of those mass emails he sends out all the time to his cronies (and me) ALL the time.  You know the emails retired people send, old jokes that are so old they aren’t funny anymore or frankly inappropriate to downright dirty?  They seem to love to send a bunch of politically correct and incorrect stuff too; Hey, what else do they have to do anyway? Now I digress…

Getting back on topic, I just went through each and every person he sends these news notices to and clicked to see what their email addresses were; guess what I found?  There were at least 20 people getting his group email and they all had cox.net, tons of msn.com’s and aol.com’s and even a frontiernet.net (don’t ask).  To my surprise ONE person had a new email address, ONE PERSON!  

So why not take years off your age on your resume and get a cool new email address?  The one email address I would recommend as of today is a gmail.com, yes a gmail account.  A gmail.com account is best unless, of course, you have your own domain name.  Most of you do not need your own personal Domain Name unless you plan on branding yourself or creating a business after you are done with corporate America.

A gmail.com account is free and is tied to your Google account and all the cool stuff you can now do with Google +. Yahoo.com is trying to catch up with their newer y.com, but why not forget Y and go with the more useful and hipper G?  

So go ahead and give your resume a face lift with a new gmail.com address.  You are never too old to get with it!  Do you know who the one person was on my Dad’s Group email box that had a new Gmail account?  My 95 year old Uncle!  So see, it is never to late to look hip, even if your hip happens to be the result of a hip implant!  (See all of our career articles at our main site, the Linda Hertz Group..join us today!)

©Linda Hertz, All Rights Reserved

By Linda Hertz why not invite me to Linkedin with you today?

J

Happy New Year from a Man That Lost “Almost Everything” in 2011 but then found….

I made a few calls out this week to some people I have gotten to know either from my working past or from people I have placed in jobs this past year or those that I conducted some career consults. Some I had placed in six figure jobs after a long term of unemployment, some were still unemployed and a few others did find jobs but were greatly UNDER-EMPLOYED. I was calling to see how they were doing and to wish them a Happy New Year. If there is a Group that needed a Happy New Year call it was the last two groups! One of the men who is under-employed touched my heart the most and HE CALLED ME before I could call out to him! Let me share part of his story.

He was a man who use to make $300,000 a year not too long ago, but had to resort to taking a job that now brings him around $2,300 net per month. He informed me that one thing has changed since I last spoke to him in September, he had lost his house, has moved himself and his two children into an apartment, he is now in the process of declaring bankruptcy and the marriage he had was now officially gone. He shared with me that he never thought he would have to receive social services to support his children, but they need some form of standard medical care for the routine; he is going without medical.

This man is 45 years old, most of the men I talk to who find themselves in this situation seem to be in this age range. Formerly high paid and now they are not, they are all trying to figure out how to get back, I hear it many times, “Linda, how do I get back to where I was or maybe even just halfway back to where I was?” I don’t have an answer that is a sure bullet and they appreciate that I don’t give them false promises. This man was no different in that regard, but he was far different in every other way. Let me share that with you too.

He called me to wish me a Happy New Year. He told me with all sincerity that he has learned to live with much less and that it was surprising how he has found a way to put a roof over their head and food on their plates with the bit of money he makes. He said, “I am thankful for my health and the health of my children, We have each other and we have time to enjoy each other now.” He chuckled and said, “After all, I don’t have enough money for us to do much else but to share family meals, play games together in the evening and watch some movies on the TV.” He concluded with, “I have much to be grateful.”

I asked him, “What would you do if you landed a job for $300,000 a year next year, what would you do differently if a second chance was given?” He replied very quickly, “I would never have a Starbucks coffee touch my lips, who needs it? I would never go on one exotic vacation EVERY YEAR as I use to, I would handle everything so differently; I would appreciate everything so much more but still would do with less.” He concluded with, “Ironically I have found that having less has brought me closer to my children and what is really important, but don’t get me wrong, I am still trying to find a job that pays more!” He ended the sentence with a laugh. He was cheerful, he was hopeful, he was wishing me a Happy New Year. He is a man that is always thinking of others.

I thought to myself, “Of all men, this one man deserves a Happy New Year!” Then, after a little more thought, I realized something else. 2011 helped him discover what was important to him, how to live with less, what is important in life and how to cherish what is truly dear to him. Perhaps 2011 was a Happy New Year in disguise that will give him the foundation to appreciate all life has to offer in the years to come. Maybe 2011 for this man gave new and real meaning to the words Happy New Year.

So to this man and all those women and men who have found themselves in tough situations this past year, “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” For the rest of us? Let’s remember to appreciate what we have, but more importantly to cherish what IS MOST DEAR TO US in our lives….I doubt it will be just money or a job. So I thank this man for calling me and reminding me what is most important in a Happy New Year. So to all I say, “Happy New Year!”  Come Join us at our main site for ALL our articles and resources!  View our over 1,600 Member Site Here.

©Linda Hertz, All Rights Reserved

By Linda Hertz why not invite me to Linkedin with you today?

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