Transcript
Speaker: Hey, stop. If your email logon sounded like like this,
Speaker: or or if your incoming mail still sounds like this, you've got mail then you've got a problem. and And I say that with understanding because I had one too, but only until the early 2000s.
Speaker: Here's the thing. That address, it could be costing you interviews. Okay? So stick with me. I'm going to show you how it flags your age in seconds and how you can fix it this weekend.
Speaker: Let me be honest with you. AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo, they still work. They just tell a story that you don't want to have told. So a quick history and then we we move on. AOL Mail started around 1993, Hotmail in In other words, they all started around the time that your hiring manager was born.
Speaker: And here's the irony alert. You kept that same loyal address, loyal address for 30 years, but they see it as a museum piece. I'm not mocking loyalty, but what I am saying is that it signals age in seconds. Recruiters, they scan seven seconds and that little at AOL.com, it does a lot of talking. I mean, come on, keeping AOL.com in 2026 is like putting your fax number on your resume. And then are you going to tell me now that that you still have the ringtone crazy frog on your phone? Yeah. We laugh, but but hiring teams, they have to make snap judgments when pouring over hundreds of resumes. So let's not hand them an easy judgment on this one.
Speaker: Here's a question to start us off. Which one are you? Team AOL, Team Hotmail, Team Yahoo? Drop it in the in the comments. that There's no shame here because we're going to be fixing this together today.
Speaker: I want you to picture the this the stack, 200 resumes, the same skills, the same titles. One says john.steck at gmail.com, but the other one says SteelersFan1962 at AOL.com.
Speaker: Which one looks current and modern? You know the answer. Here's how it filters you out. first It's an instant age marker.
Speaker: Look, AARP career advisors, they've flagged this for for years. Old domains can look dated on a resume. They they tell applicants to modernize their contact contact information to to avoid age signaling, and and it makes a really big difference. So when when you're when you're over 50, you're already fighting against different age assumptions. So why give them your birth year before they even have a chance to read your name?
Speaker: And second, it raises doubts about tech capability. Whether it's fair or not, that's what they think. Hey, if he hasn't updated his email since 1998, has he updated his Excel and Slack and Teams and AI tools?
Speaker: Business Insider covered this for a recruiter article. Hiring pros said that AOL and Yahoo addresses can make candidates seem less tech savvy and less current.
Speaker: You and I know that's nonsense. You you run cloud and and video calls all day long, but but you don't have the chance to explain that during their seven second scan. You just get sorted and filtered and tossed.
Speaker: Third, old usernames just make it worse. BeachBabe62 at yahoo.com, DodgeGuy1959 at hotmail.com.
Speaker: That's personal. That's not professional. And and it often reveals your your birth year. that's That's like self-disclosed age bias. You wouldn't put your date of birth at the top of the resume, would you? So don't put it in your email at the top of the resume.
Speaker: And fourth, there are practical headaches to all of this as well. Yahoo had those massive security breaches and the old Yahoo and AOL mail filters, they're really aggressive. Recruiter replies, they go to your spam box, password resets might never arrive. And and LinkedIn invites, they can be lost. So you miss one email, right? And and that can kill your entire momentum.
Speaker: So again, let us circle back to that comment earlier. If you wrote AOL Hotmail or Yahoo below, then you are specifically who this episode is for. Our time to rise means we're going to fix all of these red flags fast.
Speaker: If this is hitting home, head over to ageismsurvivalguide.com. grab the the free checklists and the companion guides that I have available on the website. And you can also check out the services and also be sure to subscribe to ageism survival guide on YouTube down below. We do practical age proofing tips every week.
Speaker: No, no fluff, no bullshit, just what works after 50. Okay. Let's start fixing it now.
Speaker: You don't need to delete your past ah ah unless you have like some serious other skeletons that you need to hide, but but you just need to have a clean job search address. So here's your your weekend project.
Speaker: Step one, create a professional address. Use, for example, firstname.lastname at gmail.com. No nicknames, no birth years, and and no kind of random numbers, okay?
Speaker: If your name is is taken, add a middle initial, like john.j.stech at gmail.com, or add your specialty, like john.stech.sales at gmail.com.
Speaker: These are all really simple wins. Then step two, pick the right provider. So for job search in 2026, here are my recommendations. Number one is gonna be Gmail.
Speaker: Most recruiters, they they pretty much expect it, and it plays best with the applicant systems. It it looks neutral and it looks current. Number two would be Outlook.com.
Speaker: it's It's a great second choice, especially if you're applying to corporate finance and government roles. These feel very familiar to those Microsoft shops. And yes, your old Hotmail, which is a Microsoft product, it'll forward straight to the Outlook.com.
Speaker: Other options, so for example, iCloud, it's fine if you live in the Apple world, but Gmail or Outlook are probably safer for hiring. And then there's ProtonMail, which is great for privacy, but it's less expected. So maybe keep that one as a backup.
Speaker: Now, a custom domain, now that's ah that's a power move. Like first name at johnstech.com. it's It's perfect for for consultants and for encore careers, but I would recommend only doing that if you maintain that address over time.
Speaker: on the humorous side, AOL with the the exclamation point, it sounds exciting, right? But but recruiters, they're not so excited. They're they're they're so tired from that that flood of resumes. Give them something calm and clean they can work with. Step three, forward, don't delete. This this assumes that you're gonna shut down your old address. Keep that old one for at least six months, set up auto forward to the new one and set up an auto reply with your new contact information. And then make sure to update all of the businesses and services and other things that you have your old email address on.
Speaker: Step four, clean that whole header on your resume, the new email cell number and your LinkedIn yeah URL together with city and state. Don't put your full address on there and no graduation dates, especially if you're trying to age proof this thing.
Speaker: See, you've just removed a silent filter already. And that's really important. Okay, let me recap. An old email does not mean that you're old school, but it signals old school in seven seconds. But a new email, it signals current, sharp, and ready.
Speaker: You earned that terrain that you know. Now, let your contact information show it. I want you to do one thing today. Create that new address.
Speaker: Put it on one resume draft and and feel how different it looks. And then tell me that you did it down in the comments because we're in this thing together. Youth runs fast, but age knows the terrain.
Speaker: See you next time.
