Judging applicants by their name?

Toomuchdebt

I have a foreign name-both first name and surname, despite being born here and it's never even occurred to me that people might not want to employ me because of my name. I've experienced more bias due to being a single parent with children than with my name.

CKhalvashi

Toomuchdebt wrote: »

I have a foreign name-both first name and surname, despite being born here and it's never even occurred to me that people might not want to employ me because of my name. I've experienced more bias due to being a single parent with children than with my name.

Surely it would largely depend on where your name sounds like it's from.

I've never found an issue in employment with my name, but it's fairly easy to pronounce reasonably correctly, so that may be part of it too.

OH's surname is much more difficult, and whilst she's always been self-employed, I can see it being much more of an issue for some employers.

getmore4less

Fireflyaway wrote: »

I feel that using my maiden name is sort of bowing down to prejudice but if its a way to get an interview guess it has to be done. Then when I get the job I can change it back.

It is fairly common to have a professional name that is different to your day to day and/or for spouses/civil partners to not change names if they are established.

patman99

I think the main problem with pidgeon-holing a person's origins based on their name is that this can often affect females more than males.
This is down to the fact that once they marry, they normally take-on their husband's surname, so if they then use that new name on their cv, then they will be judged by potential employers as being of foreign origon because the person looking at the cv has no prior knowledge of the marital status of the applicant.

atolaas

I have a "gender neutral" first name that has lead a few to mention that they thought they were going to be interviewing a man. I now put my middle name, which is definitely feminine, on my CV to avoid confusion. I think that removing the names from CVs once they've been submitted for a job application definitely has its merits.

purcel

I have a Dutch surname and an eastern european first name. I have applied for numerous vacancies in the last year and only got a couple of unsuccessful interviews. I may try and change my first name to an English sounding version of mine and see if that's making a difference. I really believe that employers are giving priority to native or native sounding names candidates before looking at the others.
I work with the general public and I hear comments on a daily basis about immigrants and how they take "our" jobs- and I always make a point that I am one of those- seeing that i have a British accent everyone is really surprised to find out!

antonic

I am a British Citizen , who works as a Civil Servant but I am proud to have 3 Polish names as m christian name, middle name & surname.

A while ago I moved and so had to find a new Doctors surgery.

I went to my nearest surgery (which has a lot of East European patients) and had to see the Practice Nurse, and the other staff are bilingual

So of I go for appointment and I hear the Practice Nurse say to one of the receptionists "I may need a translator for this patient as he has a foreign surname" - obviously referring to me.

She then calls my surname so I wander over to her and said "Thats me", to which she said "You speak very good english" to which I replied "I should do as I am a British Citizen" - the point being , as others have said, its amazingly common for people to assume your foreign because you have foreign names.

shortcrust

patman99 wrote: »

I think the main problem with pidgeon-holing a person's origins based on their name is that this can often affect females more than males.
This is down to the fact that once they marry, they normally take-on their husband's surname, so if they then use that new name on their cv, then they will be judged by potential employers as being of foreign origon because the person looking at the cv has no prior knowledge of the marital status of the applicant.

You really think that's the main problem? The fact that people are discriminated against because of their name at all is the main problem for me! Besides, I'm not convinced by your logic. The reverse also happens, with women with foreign sounding names marrying men with English sounding names.

missprice

mustang121 wrote: »

What kind of simple minded moron judges people by their name?


I have never heard of that one before..oh great, that's all we need "nameism".

Yeah its a "thing"
My maiden name is all but unpronounceable to most, my first name could be either gender depending where you hail from. One of the reasons I got married was to give me an English sounding surname. Can cope with the rare first name, but the surname back then was a hindrance and now it would be job suicide.

But I was born here, my mother was born here, her mother was born here, pretty sure her mother was born here or Ireland etc etc.

Indie_Kid

My first name is a popular girls name (I'm female, btw) but the way I spelt it, is popular in Sweden. This has led to at least one person responding to an email with "dear sir / madam".

Despite having an English surname, no-one can spell or pronounce it!