to judge someone on their ridiculous skype name?

[Morphene]

When someone sends their skype name for a skyped job interview and it is something like (but definitely not) 'armaggedongalaxydestroyer', is it a) discriminatory to take any notice of this at all, b) an indicator that there level of professionalism might not be all that?

It's not discriminatory to notice it, last time I checked Skype names weren't a protected characteristic also I wouldn't think they were very professional. Someone applied for a job in my team a while ago and had a ridiculous email address - I didn't bother taking them any further. How difficult is it to make a new professional email address? The fact they hadn't made me think they weren't too bright.

I'd give he benefit of the doubt for a Skype name- they're a faff to change. Email addresses are judgeable though- no sexkitten99 or fluffybunnies. Or indeed armagedon...
Actually looking at the name which is like it but not it, if it has a song or other oo er Mrs word in it, maybe do judge.

Dong is an oo er Mrs word, not song obvs!

No YANBU. I'm freelance and once a client asked me to Skype them and they were called something like "Muscles43"

I chose not to work for them.

If people don't have the nous to adopt professional email/Twitter/Skype addresses, then I use that as an indicator.

I don't care if it's a 'faff' to change.

Not that difficult to have more than one account, and selecting the one with the professional (or at least neutral) ring to it shouldn't be beyond a decent quality candidate for any role.

I don't work in a super formal setting, but this has raised my eyebrows a bit. I expect if they blow the other candidates away then they will still get it, I was just worried about the circumstance where it is close, and other people are reacting to it negatively...

I should point out there is no ooh-er about the real name, I just didn't manage to spoof it entirely successfully.

My guess is he's a gamer, or a LARPer. These are the best kind of people.

Towards the end of a Skype interview, I once advised the candidate that"sexy-lips" was perhaps not the best name to use when applying for teaching jobs. She was young and hadn't thought about it! She didn't get the job but for other reasons. Some less experienced candidates see Skype interviews as informal and so don't approach them in the same way. I have interviewed candidates who: had wet hair straight from the shower with a towel on their shoulders; sitting on their unmade bed; in a very messy bedroom; dressed in pjs/lounge wear/bath robes. These interviews are at pre-arranged times, so they know it is happening. I realise some people only have a student room,but it is worth 'staging' a professional background even if you just move some stuff to the other side of the camera.
I always try not judge as I think it is probably inexperience but I do mention that some people might.

b) an indicator that there level of professionalism might not be all that?

Well, my Dh is a serious professional, who, incidentally, would be the one conducting the interview. He's also a nerdy type who sometimes uses sci-fi/book references as usernames/passwords.

So I'd have to disagree with you on point 'b'.

And I think you mean "an indicator that their level of professionalism...."

I would judge. When they are giving advice to job seekers, it almost always includes making sure that your email address is simple, professional and appropriate, and I would expect this to extend to other forms of communication and admit to having a moment that people need to be told this.

Would the person have to use this Skype account with clients if they worked for you? Then it would definitely be a no no.

Totally agree, OP.

Although threads like this there's always someone who crops up with "I got my job as a high court judge with the Skype name feelmytitslol1987"...

I do judge skype names and e mail names. you cant help it really. especially if you are trying to do business with someone and they have a very unbusiness like name. my personal e mail address is one I definitely wouldn't use in business communications. (not rude just not professional) All of my DC have a bland sounding e mail address so that they can use it for sending out work experience type emails.

if someone applies for a job with me I use their e mail address to find their facebook profile as well just to see what sort of person we are employing. needless to say we avoid the "its Wednesday and I am wasted so throwing a sickie tomorrow" lot.

my experience is that the under 25's are much more tech savvy about names etc than the over 25's.

I'd judge someone who was unable to get their/there/they're correct before I'd judge an email address tbh.

and if I ever got their/there wrong in my CV I would expect what I got for it....but MN isn't an interview - we are very definitely allowed stupid names, if not, apparently, typos.

I'd judge someone who was unable to get their/there/they're correct before I'd judge an email address tbh.

It's a good job OP (probably) doesn't include 'Mumsnetting' with accompanying links on her CV then, isn't it?

Although threads like this there's always someone who crops up with "I got my job as a high court judge with the Skype name feelmytitslol1987"...

So true.

I think it is unreasonable to judge, if you look back to email addresses, your first email address, a Skype tag is similar, it denotes interests possibly. Not that they wish to start the next world war.

There could be nostalgia involved, I have a nephew on social media aged 12. Whilst email wasn't a thing back in the day, you had nicknames, that kind of thing. It was something you took with pride. So I can imagine a young person feeling similar about their first Skype/Email/Social Media account.

I've done a lot of interviewing, you know not to judge a book by its cover. The person who ends their interview with, 'Safe, innit!' sounds like a fool at that moment, but often you give people the chance to prove themselves.

I enjoy interviewing as you see a person in a multi faceted way, from the initial nervousness and apprehension, through to the person you get at the end of the interview when they're in a flow and feeling more confident.

I think skype interviews suck in general because I don't feel you get anywhere near the same level of actual contact with the candidate. It can be hard to even tell if they are nervous for example. On the other hand we are interviewing people from 4 different continents, so it isn't plausible to meet them in person.

I suspect we will have an outstanding candidate and it won't matter what their skype name is, I will try to shut down any banter occurring on the topic if people begin talking about it.

I have never had a Skype interview but this is similar.

I got an interview to work at a Christmas market when I was at college and was offered the job. The woman who was doing the hiring told us that we had gotten the initial interview because we had sensible email addresses and had started and ended our emails professionally. Apparently some people had felt the need to start with "Yo" and finish with "See ya later!" So their CVs were good but they stuffed themselves up with being unprofessional.

Whether it's right to judge isn't really the issue. People will judge for it.

Nobody's saying you can't have an email adddress like [email protected]. It's not like the olden days where you had a limited number of email addresses from your internet provider and that was it. You can now have dozens of gmail, hotmail or yahoo accounts for different purposes. Setting up a new Skype or email account with a sensible option isn't hard. Even if you have a very common name/surname like Karen Brown, you just use numbers or underscores to create something like karen_brown12 or kbrown2016 or CH42karenb or similar.

Yes I would judge. Yes it's inappropriate. Yes it says that the candidate either isn't professional, is a bit immature or isn't really serious about the vacancy.

Oh yes, I check Facebook (or other social media) pages too.