Want a Job? Get An English Name

Why being a Tom, Dick, or Harry is an advantage over being a Gorav, Hu, or Dimitri.

Are you looking for a job in Vancouver, Montreal, or Toronto? If so, you might want to make sure the name on your resume is a good old-fashioned English-sounding name, as people with those kinds of names were far more likely to be called back for an interview in a recent study. Metropolis B.C., a non-profit group that researches trends in diversity, sent off identical resumes with different names attached to dozens of employers in the country's three largest cities. Those resumes with Anglo names, such as Harold P. Hastings, were 35-per-cent more likely to lead to follow-up phone calls from employers than resumes with Indian, Chinese, or Greek names, leading the researchers to conclude that many employers are seeking employees who don't face language barriers in the workplace. (The effect was least pronounced in Vancouver, where the callback difference was only 20 per cent.) Not having enough "Canadian workplace experience" or speaking with an accent are two of the most common reasons cited for immigrants not getting work in Canada, despite them more often than not having reams of experience.