
Ask HN: Do you judge/profile people based on their email address? - gnicholas
I don&#x27;t treat friends differently based on their email address (though I may ask them at some point why they use a less-common provider). In dealing with customers, I note when someone uses a provider that is more common among less tech-savvy folks (AOL, hotmail), but if anything I treat them nicer (explain in more detail).<p>I&#x27;m sure other people have different experiences based on their age (I&#x27;m mid-30s) and their location (I understand Hotmail was the norm in many countries, though it never was in the US).<p>What leads you to +1 or -1? Has profiling ever led to particularly good or bad results (properly identified or mistakenly pigeon-holed someone)?
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ramtatatam
If I was hiring I would notice lack of professionalism if your email was
something like hot_chick999@whatever.whatever - I would not distinguish
between hot_chick999@hotmail.com or hot_chick999@gmail.com

As I would not pay attention at all if your email was
name.surname@whatever.whatever, even if it was totally foreign domain/email
provider (actually I would probably note strange email provider and that would
be in plus)

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formula_ninguna
I wouldn't because it's no different from judging a person by their favourite
colour. Who do you hire: a person with a sane email address or a person who
has the skills you need? Are you going to admire their email every day? Or do
you need to have that person to do their job?

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gnicholas
Curious—so if a dev applied for a job and had an AOL email address as their
primary, would you find that odd? Certainly their choice of email—which they
use many times every day—says more about them than what their favorite color
is.

For example, it might say that they are security-conscious and don't trust
Google/gmail. Or it might indicate that they take pride in being contrarian.
So it could reveal something about the character/personality of the
individual.

For the record, the question was whether we notice email addresses and have
any sort of prejudices based on them. Hopefully none of us ends up making
important decisions (hiring) based on choice of email provider!

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sigjuice
My dad got judged for not having a gmail.com address

    
    
      Acquaintance: can I have your email address please?
      My dad: firstname@lastname.net
      Acquaintance: errm, whaat! you don't have gmail??

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beamatronic
Without going into specifics, yes.

