Does An Ethnic Name Hurt Your Job Search? Man Use “White” Name & Gets More Bites

July 19, 2011 by Kellie Williams in Latest News with 2 Comments

Agnok Lueth was having a HELLUVA time landing a job interview. But the Sudanese-Australian man played it smart and decided to use a fake “white” name to see if he landed more job interviews. Prior to using a “white” name, he had applied for over 1,000 jobs, with no luck–no call back, no interview, nada! When he started using the name Daniel McLean, all of a sudden, he landed five callbacks. Unfortunately, none of these five call-backs landed him an actual interview, but it’s clear that one’s name on a resume is significant. Whatever your momma named you, can hurt or harm you. Peep the full story at Jezebel. My question to you is, in 2011, do you think having a stereotypical “black” sounding name can hurt you in your job search?

Authored by: Kellie Williams

http://thejasminebrand.com

There are 2 comments for this article

Shay July 19, 2011 at 4:25 pm

I’ve seen this played out. My husband has a very “white” sounding name, while his twin has a more “ethnic” name (ends in -quan). They both use the exact same resume when job hunting, but my husband is the one who gets the callbacks, not his brother smh. I still gave my son a rather esoteric name, Legend, with his future resume in mind. He will be identified as L. Anthony (followed by our very common All-American last name) on his resume.

Reply to this message
Allykat July 20, 2011 at 9:50 am

I am not surprised. And I do believe having that stereotypical name can do more harm than good. Folks betta have a back up plan or a pseudonym prepared when they start that job hunt. Betta yet, parents need to stop naming their kids these outrageous names.

Reply to this message

Leave a Reply Cancel comment reply