Courtesy of Wiki Commons

A person’s surface identity may now be inextricably bound up with Twitter feeds and other heavily tailored, virtual life-mélanges (Facebook Timeline, LinkedIn, etc.), but everybody still uses email, and in a few words email says a lot.

My parents, entirely respectable people, still pay for AOL service. While I want to trust the decisions of those who raised me, AOL domain email addresses make me anxious. Unresolved parental childhood trauma aside, email addresses with “@aol.com” suggestively tacked on the end make my neck hair tingle.

My parents may gain a certain sense of security knowing they are paying to keep all their stored documents “secure” in AOL’s archives, but the very thing that makes them feel so safe—AOL’s unwillingness to go away—is what caused me to abandon the clingy service a long time ago. AOL keeps trying to step up its game, leading its followers on while acquiring platforms no one’s heard of and hawking sensationalist news stories, reluctant to acknowledge it’s well past time to cede the stage.

And what’s the cost of AOL’s clunky service model with its useless add-ons? It can cost a member as much as $55 a month, or $660 a year.

I remember growing up with AOL, as if it were a dysfunctional sibling. I remember the countless activation CDs that got environmental groups seething. I remember dial-up so slow it made me want to rip off my skin, the “you’ve got mail” voice that still haunts my nightmares. AOL was the first provider I used, I thought it was the internet. I even remember my elderly grandmother struggling to remember her username/password combo as AOL’s dialup sounds ground viscerally to life, like concrete in a blender.

Every time my parents find an excuse to resist transferring away from AOL, conceding to accusations of archaicness (“We have gmail accounts,” they say, “we just haven’t…used them yet”), I warn them all the money in the world won’t make AOL any less tenuous-seeming, outdated, backward. Maybe it’s simply generational to not trust “free” things, especially when you don’t fully understand how they work.

And I wonder: how many people does AOL continue to dupe, urging them to pay for its mediocre service, while their files are no more secure than anywhere else? As of 2011, 3.5 million. I got locked out of my AOL account years ago, but I know my inbox still sadly sits somewhere in cyberspace, where it’s slowly been accumulating spam for the past 13 years, like the sibling who, in the wake of abandonment, became a compulsive collector as a substitute for familial closeness.

So maybe I have personal experience to blame, but when I see an AOL address, I think: Stuck in the past. Afraid of change. Someone who probably shouldn’t be trusted. I think of my parents saying: “Let me just locate that in my AOL history…” as countless minutes tick by.

Because of my—admittedly—extreme bias, AOL is of the greatest offense to me, but there are an abundance of other domains which are equally worrisome (Angelfire, Hotmail, Yahoo increasingly), which proudly proclaim: “I know nothing, I have never known anything, nor do I care to at any future time know about [internet] progress.” Even Yahoo’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer, recently forgot Yahoo existed while still employed at Google.

I say: move over antiquated online services, cyberspace is no longer big enough for the both of us.

Arlene Newman will be sharing her job search tips May 4 at Baruch College.

When Arlene Newman, founder of Career Bound Success, was hiring director at The Leading Hotels of the World, a Baruch College student sent her a résumé for a summer internship.

While the student had a stellar background, Newman dismissed her after catching a few spelling and grammatical errors on her CV. But the girl’s professor called Newman, told her the applicant spoke English as a second language and convinced her to give the college junior another chance.

Newman later hired the hard-working student for a full-time position and now uses the story as an example of how presentation is vital to snagging one’s dream job—and not getting glossed over by hiring managers swamped by other candidates.

“The cover letter and résumé should be error-free,” said Newman, who will be imparting more of her seasoned knowledge to job seekers in her “Fundamentals of a Successful Job Search” course on Friday, May 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Held at Baruch College, the course is open to the public and costs $99 to enroll.

Through personal anecdotes and hands-on exercises, Newman will cover everything from online networking skills to the importance of attitude in the job search.

“The job search is all about networking, whether online or personally,” said Newman, pointing out that employers will trust the recommendations of other employers far more than job search engines such as Monster.com.

Yet, having an up-to-date LinkedIn profile—especially one outfitted with keywords about skills and descriptive job information—can also catch the eye of recruiters.

“It’s all about distinguishing yourself—determining your strengths and what sets you apart,” she said.

Newman said presentation during the interview itself—whether over the phone or in person—is also important. For example, applicants should have a firm handshake with eye contact, sit up straight and smile when talking, she said.

Newman will also talk about honing personal image and projecting a positive attitude—which some applicants inadvertently lose as they become frustrated by the job search, she said.

One of Newman’s clients was stuck in a job search limbo for nine months, she said, before landing a job.

“I helped her hone her ‘elevator pitch’ to be more succinct and to the point,” said Newman, who will be helping every student in her class craft their own spiel to present to employers.

She will also include advice about the post-interview process, such as sending a hand-written thank-you note rather than just an email.

“It differentiates you from every job seeker,” said Newman, who has hired applicants who took the extra effort to give a personal touch.

Newman worked as director of human resources at places such as the Food Network, Leading Hotels of the World and Jaeger Sportswear before founding Career Bound Success in 2010. Located on the Upper East Side, the company specializes in equipping college students, alumni and professionals with the skills they need to land their dream job—advice she carries to her career seminar at Baruch.

“A lot of people will get out of the seminar a sense of confidence,” said Newman.