It doesn't matter too much, just make sure it's professional and not something like rabbitfucker@gmail. You could also just make an address specifically for interviews or whatever.

You should use Gmail. Reason being some lazily designed IT systems block emails that come from easy-to-register domains, and Proton among others frequently end up on the list.

If you're an email purist and want to fight the corporations that do the lazy blocking by letting them miss your emails, go ahead, but it might not be the most effective protest.

I think you're over thinking this. The Proton.me account will be fine. Neither particularly beneficial or detrimental.

More important is the actual address. Ideally that should be your actual name, rather than something rediculous like iloveboobies1999@...

If you have a paid Proton account you can set up multiple email addresses under the same account if you want to compartmentalise your work and personal life.

Should I use my gmail account for career related purposes or should a proton.me address be fine?

I've worked at a couple of places where it was a kind of "badge of pride" to be more in control of your email e.g. tech companies dealing with infrastructure/hosting. And then of course there is, what I imagine, the vast majority of places which could not care less.

No one really cares as long as it's not something extremely weird.

I personally opted for registering a domain name which I use to create an aliased email (along with a personal website), but this is mostly to set myself up for a possible pivot to doing consulting later on in my career. It's pretty cheap, all things considered - I pay $12 a year for it.

Is the proton.me a professional sounding name like your real name? or is it xxbussydestroyerxx or something?

Create a new email address for each round of job hunting if you’re going to apply to many places. I can guarantee this email will get spam for years to come. Job boards and recruiting firms sell and reuse email lists. You don’t want to still get spam offering you junior roles ten years into your career.

A Proton address is fine. Like others have said, keep it professional.

Register some professional looking domain and just set up mail on that.

Personally, I would definitely rather employ someone who's made a conscious choice about their e-mail provider...

I expect to learn that Google has been selling a "sentiment analysis" (measure of desperation) to potential employers, based on the contents on my Gmail inbox during my job search.

So I no longer allow anything financial to go through Gmail.

Source: just my suspicion, since it would compliment health and health insurance privacy horrors (MIB) and financial privacy invasions (credit scores, Equifax).