Is a gmail account more professional than others?

So my sister is trying to get some internship so she had me create an ATT email account for that, but then she told me to create a gmail account. She's saying that her friend told her it looks more professional to have a gmail account . Have you ever heard that?

It sounds like nonsense to me, I mean I could see how some email account names may be more professional than others based on the name (for example Jsmith@website.com would be more professional than bigbadbootydaddy@website.com), but what does it matter if its gmail or ATT or Comcast or Outlook, heck even AOL at the end of the address? I could see that maybe an address ending in AIM might not look professional but otherwise, what difference does it really make? If anything I would think that rather than looking less professional, an ATT or Comcast address would be more professional than gmail, since gmail is free and ATT and Comcast accounts come with an internet service that you pay for.

The trouble with ATT and Comcast accounts is that they are tied to your service. You drop their service, you lose your email address.

For what it's worth, I don't think GMail is more "professional," but it's kind of become the IT guys' preference. I suppose if your trying to project a good image to someone with a technical background it MIGHT be better... but that's so minute it's probably not worth considering.

For what it's worth, I think GMail provides a better experience.

Linkedin is what you get if you want to look professional.

I have my home e-mail address for official correspondence from work. Very few people know it. All the rest and junk goes to my gmail account.

For some reason, my higher ups like my ISP e-mail probably because it's indicative of a permanent address.

The City of Denver switched over to gmail. So yeah, gmail=professional.

5 years ago yes. Today no. Having a gmail account now is like saying you shop at "the Walmart."

If she is looking to impress with an email address, what would probably benefit her more than a gmail account is her own domain (username@hername.com).

Gmail is more professional; whether it looks more professional or not, that I do not know.

So I've heard. At least according to a successful free-lance programmer that lectured in my university a while ago about the dos/donts of the job.

I don´t see how having a Gmail e-mail account is going to make somebody more "professional".

@raugutcon: Perhaps because of Google's package of useful utilities. Primarily Gmail, Drive and Sheets.

Their new "Inbox" app is pretty sweet, too, although it seems to be kind of "Love it or hate it"

I hate gmail and will not have a gmail address if I can avoid it. If an employer can't get over my choice of e-mail provider either I have really crappy credentials or he/she is not someone I want to work for.

Whatever features an e-mail service provides (or doesn't) says nothing about what kind of person I am (of course, we're talking about hotmail vs gmail sort of thing, not stuff like hotstuff@suckmeharder.com =P)

Huh, what's with the gmail hate? Just kind of curious.

@mattbbpl: It's bloated, has a bunch of crap I don't need, insists in automatically logging me in with the same account on Youtube whether I want to or not...it's just annoying =)

@korvus: Huh. What do you use? Might be worth comparing to see if it's worth a switch.

@mattbbpl: I'm just allergic to anything that connects me to stuff automatically. For example, I avoid anything that automatically connects me to (or from) Facebook or stuff like that. I used to use hotmail until they went Outlook and now connects with everything. Now I use a very bare-bones interface from my website's provider, as in I have the website and the email is @"sameaddress". It receives emails, it sends e-mails and that's enough for me. Their spam filter supposedly isn't great but I've never received a spam email in my life, not even on this one.

I still use my old Hotmail account. Does that mean I can't get jobs?

@korvus: Ah. I can relate on some level (particularly regarding being signed in to Facebook - I don't want things attaching to my public profile unbeknownst to me). Unfortunately, everything is about "ecosystems" and "gardens" now. It's more for the companies' benefit than the consumers, but it's gotten to the point where resistance is... well, not futile.... but difficult and inconvenient. Heck, I'm implementing a big enterprise wide single sign on system as we speak (and yes, it will tie into social sites as well).

Unless someone is one of those with concerns about a company having access to their data or something similar, I'd probably recommend that they embrace one or more of the ecosystems out there. Most people will prefer the convenience.

@mattbbpl: Don't get me wrong, I've created software with social media tie-ins as well (you pretty much have to now), but it was never mandatory...you get the prompt, you reject it and you go on your merry way. I'd never create a system where you're happily viewing your email and you find out that apparently it connected your online calendar with Facebook because you get a notification saying "36 people liked your 'get the AIDS test result from the doctor' appointment on Friday 13th"

I think outlook looks more professional and as other have stated Gmail is too social media friendly, I don't want google+ and I wish I could have a YouTube account without a gmail.

Well for applying to job I use my school email@university.edu tho it's just a mask of gmail

I still have one too. I've had mine since 1997.

From now on, we will be known as the 3 amigos.

just how is a gmail more 'professional' than a yahoo or outlook account? Because you know lots of people and they got you an invitation to use it? *eyeroll*

I have a gmail account but I don't use it much. I mostly use my college email which is outlook and my ATT email, If I want to start up a new social media account - for example my latest twitter account - I'll use one of my old aol accounts. I created my gmail account in the fall of 2013 because I was part of a group project for a college class and our group was using google drive to share documents.

To be honest if anything, gmail doesn't feel more professional to me, it feels a bit "kiddish" (as in college kids, not little kids, but still kiddish and immature)

But Denver's just one city, and i don't see how that makes gmail professional. What did they switch from? Their own network (probably cityofdenver.com)? My guess is that might have more to do with cost savings, or taking advantage of certain features.

They most likely did switch because it was cheaper and for the features, but the thing is, a capital city liked and trusted gmail enough to migrate all its employees accounts to. That screams professional to me.

@JustPlainLucas: It may show that Gmail is professional, but it doesn't show that it is more professional than other email services.

That's an interesting point that I hadn't thought of. Technically ATT isn't my ISP anymore though, Frontier Communications is and I still use my ATT email, though ATT sold SNET (Southern New England Telephone) to Frontier, so technically either way I would have been using SNET infrastructure just the company that owns SNET changed (SNET at one time was independent so people who got their email addresses in those days have addresses that end in snet.net instead of att.net), so if I did switch to say Comcast/xfinity or Verizon then I probably would be locked out of my ATT address.

I don't think that would be an issue, unless your account is Hotmale@hotmail.com.

I use gmail and I think at one time there might have been some small benefit to using it...but honestly it's probably not even worth considering.

What *IS* important, however, is to have a good email address.

Do this:

first.last@mailservice.com (or some variation)

Don't do this:

hollarbackgirl92@yahoo.com

:)

Certain government agencies are switching to google cloud, by extensive gmail. So yeah, it's professional. Just remember to make your google profile picture professional, because any company using gmail for their mail server can see your profile picture.

I don't think anyone was saying that.

God linkedin is so pointless. Don't get me wrong I have one, but only because it is basically expected of me for resume purposes. I basically never use it though.

Anyways whipassmt, I have never heard of a type of email account as being unprofessional, just email names.

I use it ever since my old hotmail account got blocked, and since microsoft makes it such a huge pain to recover your email I couldn't be bothered, so I just made a new gmail account. I do think it looks a bit better to me than hotmal.

It's about what is before the @ Not behind it (well as long as it isn't inappropriate)

Well gmail does provide some pretty useful services (drive) that are almost essential where I work. It's really inefficient to send email chains back and fourth so we just use drive to post current tasks and deadlines, people upload their files and everyone can access them.

I think most professional would be a company or university email. But for when you need to find a job linkedin is cool.

Nah I actually think that's more like Outlook, compared to the old hotmail, Outlook is a joke and just a shell of its former self, besides new Outlook doesn't have Windows Live. Seemed pretty stupid to scrap that.

employers don't give a shit about your email account domain