Does ‘Joe’ Have a Better Chance of Being Hired Than ‘José?’

Two résumés come across the desk of a hiring manager. One of them for an applicant named Joe. The other is for an applicant named José. If both applicants are equally qualified, does one have a better chance of being hired than the other?

Though names shouldn’t make a difference in hiring, one man found that dropping the letter “s” from his name drastically changed his success with his job search.

José Zamora told Buzzfeed that after months of applying to 50-100 relevant jobs each day and never hearing back, he decided to change his résumé to read “Joe Zamora” and see what happened.

He applied for the same jobs that he had previously reached out to and used the exact same résumé, other than the name change. One week after switching his name, José started getting replies from the employers asking him to apply and setting up interviews.

José may not be the only person whose name has impacted his job search. Studies have shown that having a Caucasian-sounding name often yields better results than having a name that sounds like it comes from a different ethnic background.

A 2002 study from researchers at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that applicants with “white-sounding names” were 50% more likely to get called for an interview.

About 5,000 fake résumés were sent in response to 1,300 classified ads in the Chicago Tribune and the Boston Globe for the study “Are Emily and Brendan More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” using a mixture of names and experience.

Not only were the Caucasian-sounding names more likely to get called back, but the applicants with names that sounded African-American were less likely to get a call back even when their résumés were more impressive.

Hiring managers and HR departments should use this information to examine their hiring practices and make sure that every applicant, regardless of perceived race, has an equal shot at being hired.

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