Job seeker swaps ethnic-sounding surname for Anglo one on resume, gets more responses — now asks netizens if it will backfire
A post on Reddit’s r/recruitinghell has raised an uncomfortable question about hiring bias and what candidates feel pushed to do about it.
The original poster explained how they had a common English first name but a last name they describe as sounding very ethnic and difficult to pronounce. After reading on the platform about research suggesting that resumes with White- or European-sounding names receive more callbacks, they tried using a different surname on their applications.
“So I tried this, and it actually worked,” they wrote.
Now they are worried about what happens next. The surname on their resume is not their legal name. Do they need to file a Doing Business As registration for it? Or is it enough to explain the change to HR once an offer is on the table?
What Reddit said
One commenter suggested a low-key approach: keep the legal name on all formal documents and background check paperwork, and if anyone asks, explain that you go by one name professionally but legally use another. “This happens a lot with women who get divorced or married and do or don’t change their names,” they wrote. “I wouldn’t draw attention to it.”
Another, born in the US to immigrant parents who used English names themselves but gave their children traditional ones, said they had been considering the same step. “Kind of messed up; it will probably be more successful but not surprising.”
One commenter described witnessing the bias directly: a company director who would proudly throw any CV with a “foreign” name in the bin. “To my shame, I was too poor to call it out when it happened in front of me. Do whatever you can to beat a system that’s stacked against you.”
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And one pointed out that names can signal gender as well as ethnicity. Their legal first name is Alexis; switching to Alex on applications brought more responses. “My husband always got more responses than me, but I’m far more credentialed than him.”
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