Job Seeker - SHOULD YOU CHANGE YOUR NAME TO GET THAT JOB?
Should you change your name to get a job? Should you, would you, could you?
Australia has welcomed people from all parts of the world for generations. We are a nation of immigrants who have settled on Aboriginal land. We hail from every peopled continent in the world, come with different languages, different skin colours, some short, some tall, some fat and some thin. Each migrant group have found it difficult to assimilate into society for years, eventually establishing themselves in the workforce, housing and society.
However, the New Australian does not want to wait a generation before walking into a job easily. He needs work now, preferably in his field. Even with perfect English there are artificial barriers that are set up which effectively discriminate against his getting that job. People are people, and even though the law bans discrimination in the workplace many employers do discriminate against people who are different to the ones they grew up with. They do so both consciously and sub-consciously. An example is a male employer who will go through a list of applicants only looking at the resumes of men, or a woman employer who chooses to disregard applicants older than her because she feels uncomfortable being a boss over an older person.
When it comes to your name theoretically you should be able to put in your resume and be assessed upon your skills, qualifications, experience and references before the interview stage, in other words your suitability for the job. Many employers have grown up with classmates whose names reflect past migrant patterns which are English, Scottish, Italian and Greek names. Names from Africa, Yugoslavia, India, Bangladesh and China are simply not in their vocabulary. Studies have shown that the latest migrant groups are often being disregarded in job applications. To make it worse people have applied twice with identical resumes, one using an English name and one from another country, finding that they were given an interview only when using the English name.
So should you change the name that you have proudly held for generations? Maybe your grandparents died in the Holocaust in Europe or on the killing fields in Cambodia and you want to keep and honour the family name. Your qualifications may be in your name or you simply want to keep your own name. Many famous migrants have kept their original names and succeeded in the careers. Slowly but surely CEOs are having their New Australian names go up there in blazing lights. Society is changing as the old generation moves on and out of the workplace and the Johns and Bettys of the past in grade one schoolbooks and children’s TV programs are being replaced with Sofia, Lee and Pablo. Australians are now getting used to names such as Chanarong, Mohammed and Deepak.
Some people choose to use a nickname similar to their own name as an entry ticket into a job, others actually decide to change their names completely. It all comes down to personal choice, the type of employer you are going to be working with and patience in the process of getting that job. It may be that sending your resume in is just not enough. Calling the employer personally to request an interview, getting an employment agency to recommend you, networking through friends and acquaintances and even joining sporting clubs to meet more people could be a valuable step up the ladder in your job search, rather than considering changing your name.
But, as many women who have changed their name to a male’s name have found, sometimes it is an option to a fast track to success in getting that job. When you have a family to feed and house, and you have applied for many jobs without success, sometimes changing one’s name can be the way to get your foot in the door.
You can always change it back at a later date Job Seeker.