Editor, Publisher

Well, not surprisingly, in many cases a surname can indicate a candidate’s cultural ethnicity.  Last names such as Daley, O’Malley, McDonnell, Murray and Murdoch usually signal a candidate that is of Irish decent and applicants with names such as Karsh, Kohn, Rosenberg and Schwartz usually translate into candidates of Jewish decent.  But, did you also know that your birth name (first name) can also say a lot about who you are as well?  It’s true.  When names like Maria, Ricardo, Jose or Miguel appear on the top of a resume, most astute and not so astute hiring directors will easily pick up on the fact that the candidate is more than likely of Spanish decent and, lately, similar correlations or assumptions have been made about supposedly black sounding names.  Names such as Indonesia, Lakeesha, LaQuandra, Luchiana, Marquita, Moesha, and Tamika almost always immediately get grouped into any company's black applicants pile.  This can be a good pile to be in if the company you mailed your resume into is progressive in its hiring practices and regularly looks to recruit culturally diverse job applicants to fill its different positions, but on the other hand, if the company you mailed your resume into aggressively attempts to bar people of color from its hiring rounds then this definitely isn't a good stack to be in.

While no one should ever be ashamed of their name or their cultural background, they should at least be aware, however, that certain names can land them in job interviews as well as easily out of them.  While many companies actively recruit African Americans to regularly oversee important aspects of their business operations and many other companies regularly offer minority-based internship programs to help expose minority students to rich and challenging training environments, there are still countless other companies that openly and audaciously discriminate against culturally diverse job applicants.

Nicknames

While there’s not much a candidate can do about his or her birth name besides legally changing it, minority jobseekers of late have been extremely inventive; they have discovered practical ways to alter their names.  Recently, an African-American jobseeker told me about his really good fortune in using his nickname at the top of his resume instead of his true name.  He thought that his real name Terrell was barring him from job opportunities so he decided to go with his nickname Todd.  After having no success in landing a job interview for more than eight months, he switched to his nickname and instantly landed a job interview, three to be exact and ultimately secured a job offer too.

Fictitious Names

Besides using nicknames, minority jobseekers have turned to headlining their resumes with fictitious names.  Those that I have talked to say that the only names that even get considered are those that sound white and a quick handful to choose from, that's if you're looking for a safe name to tack on your resume too, are:  Amy, Becky, Betsy, Chelsea, Hannah, Katie, Molly, Tierney, Austin, Brett, Robbie and Trent. 

Middle Names

Another tactic jobseekers have turned to in order to safely disguise their ethnicity is to use a middle name over a too-black sounding first name.  For example, if a jobseeker's first name is Mercedes and she fears it might give away her race and she coincidentally owns the middle name Karen, then she could easily replace Karen for Mercedes.  If a job applicant's first name is Verdell and her middle name is Lana, then she could safely use Lana instead.

Abbreviating Names

_________________________________________________

This article is © 2003-2004 by Tracy Miller and may not be reposted without written permission from the author and may not be reprinted for profit.