Should I change my name for a job?

A week or so ago I was ranting to Mark and his family about my inability to get very far in jobhunting despite trying for over a year. Most of the time I’d get rave reviews about my resume (“we love the stuff that you do! you seem outstanding!”) only to be denied job offers or interviews because

• “You don’t have enough experience”
• “You don’t have enough specific experience”
• “You didn’t tick all the right boxes”

A few times the job I’ve wanted has gone to a friend of mine. Knowing their CV and experiences, it’s baffling how they could get the job and I couldn’t even score an interview – the same excuses lobbed at me could very well be used on them. I was denied a job interview as the website & social networking person for a council youth agency – something I already did on my own for free; also, I was friends with the original job holder (who had no say in HR). I was told that I didn’t have enough social work or youth work background, despite my many years of working with youth communities worldwide. The person who got the job, a friend of mine, doesn’t have “enough” social work background either – she’s a journalist by trade! She absolutely deserves the job, but it’s odd that she got considered when the council won’t even give me a chance to sell myself.

Yet when I ask how I can improve my chances, or what they mean by “enough”, I get vague answers. Often I get no reply. Sometimes I get people rejecting me because I didn’t include something in my resume that was clearly there. (Do they even read these things?) My university HR tried to give me the runaround about not hiring people with Bridging Visas – but at least one of the actual departments gave me an interview.

Today I found some blog chatter about Men with Pen’s James Chartrand revealing that she’s a woman writing under a masculine name . She says she did it because she was not getting anywhere as a freelancer under her female name, but things magically got a lot easier with a male name. Same skills, same resume, different name. The name made all the difference. (Figleaf and the Washington City Paper call possible shenanigans, and I’m starting to wonder if this is a publicity stunt, but that’s a digression from my main point.) It echoed cases of people like the Bronte sisters or J.K. Rowling who only got success and recognition under an ambiguously male name.

This reminded me of my rant with Mark’s family. One thing we thought may have been a big factor is my name. There’s been research (in Australia, even) that shows that people with ethnic names have a far harder time getting jobs than similarly-qualified people with Anglo names . A friend told me about a Middle Eastern colleague of hers that got nowhere with Salleh [Lastname], but when he sent out resumes as Sam Milton people jumped at the chance to hire him. Same resume, drastic difference.

“Tiara Shafiq”. It’s part of my real name (I have another first name that I hardly use which is even more ethnic sounding). It’s the name I’ve done a lot of work by – writing, community work, education. It’s the name on the resume, on the email address, on this website. There are some national and international guides & websites with that name associated with me. Googling that name gets a whole page of sites by or about me.

“Tiara” is unusual, but an English word. It doesn’t twig people’s Foreign-Meter. People tend to think it’s Kiara or Chiara or Kara – it takes a while for me to correct them. “Shafiq”, however, is highly Foreign – not just that, it’s Arabic, which means OMGTerrorist. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the name pronounced right. It takes a while to spell. People are surprised to learn that I am a near-native speaker of English (the only reason I’m not ‘native’ is because I’m from Malaysia); foreign students are surprised to learn I’ve only been in Australia 3 years and I haven’t been raised in an English-majority country.

Should I change my name? Is my name really the deciding factor in whether or not I get jobs, the thing that doesn’t tick people’s boxes (despite my “great experience”), the thing that’s “not enough”? Do people not trust my experience and skills and assume I’m some dodgy foreigner who has no idea what’s going on?

I’ve been thinking of getting an Anglicised name for months, mainly out of frustration at still not getting a regular job. I’ve been pondering on “Tiara Gill” – Gill is the last name of my Eurasian best friend, it’s ambiguous, but it’s also the name of a character in an action fiction story so anyone Googling me will get confused. I’d lose out on all the work I’ve gained through being “Tiara Shafiq”. My references wouldn’t have a clue who “Tiara Gill” is if asked – but do they even know my last name? It could be “Tiara Stephanopolizkytek Chin” for all they care.

Take this website. TiaraShafiq.com. Would I lose out on all the hard work if I start sending out resumes as Tiara Gill? Or something as banal as Tina Smith?
Then again, given that even my best appearances on the web and my wide body of work apparently isn’t enough to even convince people like the Brisbane City Council or QUT (who have people who are very familiar with me) to even give me an interview, does it matter? Are people even reading the resumes and selection criteria, or are they just scanning?

Mark was wondering if it could be considered as fraud since they’d be having preconceived notions based on the name. But isn’t the whole point that they’re building preconceived (yet inaccurate) notions based on my name anyway? How would I deal with paperwork and official material once they work out I’m not Tina Smith or Ms Gill?

Would I be buying into a system that demonizes people for being “ethnic”? That was a major criticism with Chartrands – that not only was she posing as male, she built a hypermasculine online identity that sometimes degraded women. I’ve written plenty about cultural issues and racism both on here and The Merch Girl , but if you read my more neutral posts would you have worked out that I am South Asian born & bred in Malaysia? Would that knowledge affect how seriously you take me, how capable you think I will be? Some people think I’m being too Westernised anyway, what with my taste in performance and my tendency to be more of a loudmouth individualist. Am I already playing within the system that oppresses me over something relatively insignificant?

Should I change my name?

Comments

1. A friend of mine, when she married her Australian husband, changed her surname to his. When she was called in for a job, the woman who greeted her exclaimed, “YOU’re K. Shrimpton?!” as if she was shocked. My friend has strong suspicions that her Chinese self wasn’t what the employer was expecting, and frankly, I agree.

   James Chartrand’s strategy works mostly because she works online. Not only that, but she adopted a mantle of male privilege along with it.

   But there have been actors who have gotten better opportunities because of changing their names to something more mainstream. Kal Penn is our everyday example.

   — Jha · Dec 22, 02:04 AM · #

2. I’ve been thinking very seriously about changing my name – dropping my Anglo surname and using my Chinese name as my last name. I know that your experiences are absolutely correct, that people are denying jobs based on name – it makes me so angry, and I am going to be a success despite that (and with the name I want to use, that reflects who I am).

   But you have to do what you have to do to succeed, you know?

   — Stephanie · Dec 23, 08:57 AM · #

3. I… don’t know.

   On the one hand it’s fairly clear that there seems to be some kind of systemic bias at least on whether your resume is given a second (or first) look.

   On the other, though, you’re right… the references aren’t going to fly if you change your name.

   Hmm. You’ve asked your best friend if it’s okay to take her surname or not? I find that sometimes it can be a rather sensitive thing.

   — T-Boy · Dec 23, 10:29 AM · #

4. Cheers Girl , you know the best part already, you wont change a bit, even if you did change the name . So live with it, for it is your identity , and yes, we all your tribesters would rather recall Tiara Shafiq than Tiara Smith , or Jill or whatever . People who wouldn’t hire you are just looking for pillars to hide behind . They say, you never hire someone smarter than you( your Boss) You are very smart, talented, and live upto that . Offers would roll in anyway .

   Its your personal brand, Tiara ,don’t consider renaming it !

   — Ekta Grover · Dec 23, 09:32 PM · #

5. Do it! Then you can be just like Gala Darling!

   — Tega · Dec 30, 12:02 AM · #