Cutesy e-mail addresses

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-25-05 AT 03:30PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I recently had a conversation with a peer regarding an e-mail address on a resume we received for a customer service rep position. The e-mail address was "passionpoptart". I told my peer that I responded to the applicant, by e-mail, saying thank you for your interest and we will take your experience into consideration. I also mentioned to the applicant that she might want to change her e-mail address when applying for jobs because it could distract a recruiter from carefully considering her experience, or worse, disqualify her from the selection process because it is seen as unprofessional. My peer said that is only my opinion and that some companies might look at that as a positive thing depending on the position they are hiring for or their company culture. Would any of you be interested in hiring "passionpoptart" as a customer service rep? Have any of you ever disqualified someone from a position because of their e-mail address or because you had to listen to two minutes of their favorite song, and then hear their message of, "Yo! You know what to do!" before you leave them a message?

Have you ever disqualified someone from the selection process when you see that they faxed you their resume from their current employer?

Comments

  • 16 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • I have not DQ'd candidates based on cutsey e-mail addresses, but, if I interviewed them I advised them that changing their email address would probably be a good idea.

    I did, however, DQ one promising looking candidate after trying to reach her by phone. I got her voice mail in which she said, "I can't come to the phone right now, I'm probably out back smokin' some herb. Leave a message."
  • That was an assumption. It was probably basil.
  • Yeah. Right. Everyone I know smokes basil... x;-)
  • I understand parsley's good..........;;)
  • I haven't DQ'd anybody on the basis of bad judgment in email addresses, but I've ended up wishing I had. We had a young woman who filed a discrimination complaint against us. Later when I checked her orginal application to find her home email address, it was something like "hottie@blahblah.com." (I'm being a bit inexact in the address so none of you guys will be tempted to email her x;-))
  • I believe if you are seeking a professional position,then you should keep all your contact information as professional as possible. I would have second thoughts (at least in my own mind) about people who display these type of email addresses.

    What's worse is when you call a candidate and they have some type of "call block" on their phone and you have to "identify" yourself before they will accept the message. This REALLY makes me wonder what they are involved in.

    Another bugaboo of mine is when people have their children who can barely put a sentence together, on their answer machine message. This is irritating. I usually just hang up.
  • I haven't DQ'd them because of an address but I do take a much harder look at them if their address is cutsey. The address does reflect them, that's why they chose it.
    I did advise my kids when they were seniors in high school to have a professional mail address because of having to mail schools, jobs, etc. My daughters was slaphappygirl. They did take the advice (for once) and actually thanked me for the heads up because they realized the benefit of having a professional address.
  • Yes, I have disqualified applicants for both email addresses that are unprofessional and phone messages (or phone etiquette) that are unprofessional.

    I once had an applicant's family member cuss at the applicant to come to the phone in my ear! I hung up as I heard the applicant cuss back in response!

  • No, I haven't done that, but that doesn't mean I would never consider it. I guess it's another little window into who that person really is, which is how we judge how well they'll do on the job. I don't think I'd make a judgement based on how "profesional" the address is because there's a world of differance between "goodtimegirl@"...and "minorityhater@"...Both could be seen as "unprofessional," but the second one would give me pause, to say the least.
  • Just saw this post. I did DQ a guy once over his email addy. THUNDERCOCK....... laughed my but off then through his resume in the junk pile.

    Young kid......my guess he was still a virgin!

    My $0.02 worth,
    The Balloonman
  • Just saw these posts,too. I answer Yes to all of the above. I have not responded to people with very racey email addresses, I figure if they lack the good sense to use something more appropriate for business correspondance then I dont want them here. As a rule I DQ candidates who fax or email me their resumes from their current place of employment. If they'd to it to the current employer, they'd do it to us.
    And I have DQ'd folks with really obnoxious voice mail messages. I try not to Dq anyone based on how someone else in their household answers the phone, but it has been tempting.
    that's my $.02

  • We don't dq based on a questionable choice of email address. But I'll tell ya, when I sit down for an interview with "sunshinedaydream420" I definitely stress our drug and alcohol policy...
  • Wow. I'm impressed. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that wouldn't have picked up on the "420" thing. :)
  • I'm one of those people, so I'll bite - is it a pot reference?
  • I didn't get it either, but our 20-something Admin Asst immediately said, "smokes weed."

    Anne in Ohio
  • I did a google search. Here'e the link and the text.

    [url]http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/420.htm[/url]

    Claim: '420' entered drug parlance as a term signifying the time to light up a joint.
    Status: True.

    Origins: Odd
    terms sneak into our language every now and then, and this is one of the oddest. Everyone who considers himself in the know about the drug subculture has heard that '420' has something to do with illegal drug use, but when you press them, they never seem to know why, or even what the term supposedly signifies.

    It's both more and less than people make it out to be. '420' began its sub-rosa linguistic career in 1971 as a bit of slang casually used by a group of high school kids at San Rafael High School in California. '420' (always pronounced "four-twenty," never "four hundred and twenty") came to be an accepted part of the argot within that group of about a dozen pot smokers, beginning as a reminder of the time they planned to meet to light up, 4:20 p.m. Keep in mind this wasn't a general call to all dope smokers everywhere to toke up at twenty past four every day; it was twelve kids who'd made a date to meet near a certain statue. It's thus incorrect to deem that '420' originated as a national or international dope-smoking time, even though the term began as a reference to a particular time of day.

    These days '420' is used as a generic way of declaring one likes to use marijuana or just as a term for the substance itself. Its earliest connotation of having to do with the time a certain group of students congregated to smoke wacky tobaccy is unknown to the overwhelming majority of those who now employ the term. Indeed, most instead believe one or more of the many spurious explanations that have since grown up about this much abused short form:


    420 is the penal code section for marijuana use in California.
    Nope. Section 420 of the California penal code refers to obstructing entry on public land. The penal codes of other states list different entries for 420, but none of them matches anything having to do with marijuana.

    However, on 1 January 2004 the Governor of California signed that state's Senate Bill 420 which regulates marijuana used for medical purposes. This bill comes years after the term '420' was associated with marijuana and indeed its number likely was chosen because of the existing pop culture connection. This is the tail wagging the dog, not the other way around.


    It's the Los Angeles or New York police radio code for marijuana smoking in progress.
    It's not the police radio code for anything, let alone that.


    It's the number of chemical compounds in marijuana.
    The number of chemical compounds in marijuana is 315, according to the folks at High Times magazine.


    April 20 is the date that Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, or Janis Joplin died.
    Though these performers were strongly identified with drug use during their brief lifetimes and the emerging drug culture after their demises, none of them kicked the bucket on April 20. Morrison died on July 3, Hendrix on September 18, and Joplin on October 4.


    The 20th of April is the best time to plant marijuana.
    There's no one "best time" -- that answer would change from one part of the country to another, or even one country to another.


    Albert Hofmann took the first deliberate LSD trip at 4:20 on 19 April 1943.
    This was indeed the case — his lab notes back this up. But this wasn't the source of "420," just an oddball coincidence. (For the pedants out there, Hofmann's first LSD trip, which was accidental, took place on 16 April 1943.)


    It's the code you send to your drug dealer's pager.
    Yeah, right. All drug dealers recognize a '420' page as "Please be waiting on the corner with my baggie of wildwood weed."


    When the Grateful Dead toured, they always stayed in Room 420.
    Untrue, says Grateful Dead Productions spokesman Dennis McNally.

    Spurious etymologies and uncertain definition aside, '420' has slipped into a position of semi-respectability within the English lexicon. Various free-wheeling cities annually celebrate "hemp fests" on April 20. There's a 4:20 record label in California, and a band called 4:20. Atlanta's Sweetwater Brewing Co. sells its 420 Pale Ale in supermarkets and opens its doors to the public at 4:20 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. New York's 420 Tours sells low-cost travel packages to the Netherlands and Jamaica. Highway 420 Radio broadcasts "music for the chemically enhanced." And in 2001, the forReal.org web site of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Center for Substance Abuse Prevention put out a public service document titled, "It's 4:20 — Do You Know Where Your Teen Is?"

    420s are routinely slipped into popular movies and television shows. In Fast Times at Ridgemont High the score of the football game was 42-0. Most of the clocks in Pulp Fiction are set to 4:20 (but not all — when the kid receives the watch it's set at 9:00). And there are many other instances, so keep your eyes peeled.

    However, as amusing as it is to tie 420 to pot smoking and hunt for it in popular movies, the number has its dark side. Hitler was born on 20 April 1889, and the massacre of 13 victims at Columbine High School in Colorado took place on 20 April 1999.

    Barbara "4 and 20 blackbirds" Mikkelson

    Last updated: 19 April 2005

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