I was handing out my business card at a startup mixer in Austin for two years before a friend pointed out my email address was 'oscar@myoldisp.net'.

Has anyone else had a networking facepalm moment that was painfully obvious in hindsight?

3 comments

3 Comments

My old resume listed my personal AOL email from high school for nearly a decade. I only caught it when a recruiter asked if I was still using that service. I switched to a simple firstname.lastname format on Gmail and got way more replies almost immediately.

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drew_bennett242mo ago

Yeah, it's wild how much an outdated email can make you look out of touch. I'd even avoid cutesy handles like "gamerchick" for anything professional.

richard2262mo ago

Oh man, this is so true. I read an article a while back that said recruiters spend seconds on a resume, and a weird email is an instant turn-off. Drew_bennett24 is totally right about avoiding the cutesy stuff. It just makes you seem less serious before you even get a chance to talk. That firstname.lastname format is the safe bet for a reason, it just looks professional right away.