Pongo Resume

After generations of Georges, Williams, Johns, and Jameses, we now have a Barack in the White House. So we can all agree that name discrimination is history. Yeah, right! Tell that to the woman who wrote this post on Tuesday, describing her experience as a highly qualified job candidate who couldn't get an interview until she began using her middle name (Danielle) instead of her first name (Danisha) on her resume.

Name discrimination is a discouraging fact, but hardly a surprise. It's just one of the many biases that can affect the hiring process. Several years ago (2003), Kendra Hamilton reported on a study in which researchers from the University of Chicago and MIT sent out 5,000 resumes with either white-sounding or black-sounding names chosen from birth records. Bottom line, they found that resumes with names like Jay, Brad, Carrie, and Kristen were 50 percent more likely to receive a callback than those with names like Keisha, Latoya, Rasheed, and Darnell.

OK, that's one shocking statistic, which at first glance might seem to imply that recruiters, HR people, and hiring managers must be a bunch of filthy racists. (Tabloid journalism, anyone?) Come on. A tiny percentage may be, but overall, hiring professionals were anxious to learn how to remove these biases from the screening process once they learned of them, according to the researchers.

Suffice it to say, every human being has biases. We can reject the ones we're aware of in ourselves, but it's tough to act on the ones that are subconscious.

But sometimes name discrimination isn't about race or ethnicity or xenophobia at all. It's just laziness or fear of embarrassment. If the name on your resume looks hard to pronounce and/or isn't gender-specific, it's quite plausible that a hiring manager might (consciously or not) reject it for that reason, alone.

Let's say, for example, you're a recruiter trying to cull a stack of 100 resumes down to 10. You see one from an applicant named Taidgh Smith. Unless you're familiar with traditional Irish names, you probably would wonder if Taidgh is a man or a woman, and how his/her name is pronounced. Tage? Taddig? (Nope, not even close.)

What do you think most recruiters would do in that situation? Would they take the time to Google the name to find out its origins? Human nature being what it is, most people will take the quicker, easier route and just skip over the difficult resume.

[BTW, I have a nephew named Taidgh, so let me say for the record that it's a boy's name, and it's pronounced roughly like "Tiger" without the r.]

If you were a job seeker facing possible name discrimination, would you switch to a more commonly known middle name, or a nickname that sounds more white or Anglo? Maybe use only your initials, or otherwise change the name on your resume? Or, would you stick with your real name, regardless? (We're talking first names—you can't really mess with your surname.)

We'd love to hear your thoughts or experiences with this topic. Please cast a vote in our poll, and add your comments below. Since this is a potentially touchy subject, we'll be moderating comments before they go live.

 

RELATED LINKS
Put Your Brand Name on Your Resume, Not Your Real Name
When Bad HR Happens to Good Job Seekers
Check Your Resume Before You Send It

Read more at: http://busterpeach.blogspot.com/2009/01/mammas-lets-talk.html

We all have names that drive us nuts or make us warm and fuzzy. It totally proves your theory about biases - and specifically, not at all race related biases.

Please help.

Well... I guess the middle name option wouldn't work for them, huh? They'd have to decide how to identify themselves, either with a nickname, or maybe even a parenthetical pronunciation key.

@Ricierracer67

That's such a frustrating situation. Have you followed up with thank you notes after each interview? Have you provided everything they asked for, showed up on time, and all the rest? If so, it's just a waiting game, and there's little else you can do.

For some insight into what might be going on, take a look at Ronnie Ann's recent guest post: http://www.pongoresume.com/blogPosts/301/why-the-post-interview-waiting-game-takes-so-damn-long.cfm

Best of luck to both of you!

Julie

I Googled your first name and learned that it is a male name of Hebrew origin and it is pronounced "tzee-kah." The problem is, a hiring manager with a hundred resumes to sort through is unlikely to take the time to do that.

On a resume, if I were you, I might consider putting the pronunciation in parentheses, something like this:

Mr. Tzvika (pronounced "Tzee-kah") Dor

I would also be very upfront about it in your cover letter, with a blunt statement like:

"I find that many people are puzzled by my unusual name, so let me clarify that I am a gentleman and my name is pronounced "Tzee-kah."

@SM

Agreed. We can make progress (as evidenced by the funny-named guy in the White House), but it may never go away fully.

@Sri

See my comment above to Tzvika. Same idea could work for you.

@tb / Olympia

My personal opinion? Your name is not that unusual. There's a famous actress with that name (Olympia Dukakis) so people are probably familiar with it, it's easy to pronounce, and clearly a female name. I think you're all set in the name department.

Thanks for the comments, all!

Julie

I hear you on the abusable name thing -- but you also need to weigh the fact that people who Google your "white bread" name won't find you.

Of course, for some people that may be a good thing ;)

Good luck,

Julie

I would guess Possel-wait, with a short O and a silent T. I'm guessing that because there is an actor named Pete Postlethwait, and I have always heard his name pronounced Possel-thwait (but maybe that was only in my head)? Am I close?

@Jeralicia

I definitely like your theory about following a unique name with a bad ass resume! I wonder what would happen if you sent a resume as just "Alicia." According to those research statistics, it might change things. (How sad is that?)

@Coley

You make a great point about familiarity, and I agree that conscious, overt racism is not always the cause of the hiring discrepancy. But unconscious biases color our decision-making all the time. A preference for the familiar is part of human nature, but so is its corollary, the fear of the unfamiliar or different (which is at the heart of racism).

This is a very complex topic with no simple answers. I really appreciate your comments, everyone!

--Julie

The vast majority of HR people and hiring managers DO want to place the best candidate in the job, for the very reason you mention -- passing over an excellent candidate because of their unusual name would simply be bad for business. And if they discriminated openly, I'm sure they would be fired. HR people are typically trained to watch out for their own potential biases. If name discrimination occurs, it could be at any point in the hiring process, not just the first reader.

It's interesting to hear that you FedEx your resume to the top management. Has that worked well for you?

My fear with that tactic would be that they'd be annoyed that you tried to circumvent their standard application process, or that the hiring manager (assuming s/he is not one of the C-level execs) would be miffed that you'd gone over their head.

Great food for thought -- thanks!

--Julie

Thanks for the advice, BTW Tzvika pronounced "tzveeikah." The T and the Z are half silent. it is hebrew origin and it is a nick name for Tzvi which in hebrew means Deer.

Now I wonder if that may have been the reason a former boss of mine had the name "John George". --- "I always thought having a unique name would stand out so you'd better have a bad ass resume to follow...I still have had NO luck after seven months! Ugh! Oh yeah and my name is pronounced Jer-Alicia....I personally don't think its THAT hard." Posted by: Jeralicia

I also wonder if I should name my future kids "Lauren" or "Gregory" now instead of the rising trend of unique names that are very apparent today. Not that I would personally find myself in that sitation to do so.

I'll never change my name, It's a part of who I am. My work speaks for itself.

It's distressing to hear all these stories, and I don't doubt their validity at all.

However, I would like to say that I know a great many HR people and hiring managers who try very hard to judge candidates fairly and equally, regardless of their names.

There are some other VERY COMMON reasons resumes get overlooked, and before you blame it all on your name, make sure you aren't shooting yourself in the foot in a more easily fixable way. For example:

** Typos, grammatical errors, or awkward language (if English is not your first language, have a native English-speaker review and revise your resume and cover letter)

** Generic resumes sent to many, many employers without targeting their individual needs

** Skipping the cover letter

@Saddie -- I don't know if there are any legal consequences to using a different surname on your resume, but it would probably create an awkward situtaion later. If you've been entered in the employer's database with one name, and then have to explain that it's not really your name, they might think that was odd. My suggestion would be to just add a line in your cover letter that says "You may be wondering about the pronunciation of my last name; it's ______" [and then spell it out the way an English speaker would understand it phonetically.] As a hinring manager, I would appreciate that kind of proactive problem-solving.

Thanks for all the comments! Best of luck to all of you.

--Julie

On the other hand, I completely disagree with parents naming their kids ridiculous names that you KNOW will make it hard for them to get a job (*i.e.- My'love)....But that's another story. Sorry if anyone's name on here or child's name is My'love. :)