Job Seeker Removes One Letter on His Name & Employers Start Calling! News

By Tabitha Makumi,

While a lot of Kenyan job seekers complain of how most recruitment processes are marred with tribalism and nepotism, somewhere else in the world, job seekers are being judged by HR officers on not their skills or their academic background but their race!

In a trending news item posted by Huffington Post, one José Zamora had a routine while job searching.

Like any other determined job seeker, he logged onto his computer every morning and combed the internet for listings, applying to everything he felt qualified for. He is estimated to have sent out between 50 to 100 resumes a day.

But there was a problem. He wasn’t getting any feedback! And the reason to this is he believes is that he didn’t have a “white sounding” name.

He intentionally removed the‘s’ from his name and voila! He was Joe and he started getting feedback on his job applications.

“I had to drop a letter to get a title,” he says adding, “Sometimes I don’t even think people know or are conscious or aware that they’re judging — even if it’s by name — but I think we all do it all the time.”

Back to Kenya and our tribalism issues. Recently couple of disgruntled Kenyans felt that you don’t really need a great cover letter as long as the HR Manager or Officer in charge of the recruitment process belongs to your tribe.

Davis wrote, “Best cover letters in Kenya are those that bear the applicant’s name that is similar (in tribal terms) to that of the hiring manager.”

Another job seeker identified as Aslay supported Davis on this, “It doesn’t matter how you write your cover letter… tribalism and good connections is the order of the day. With these two things in your life, then you don’t even need a cover letter!”

And that was not the end of it, Njeru Mwandiki also poured out his sentiments, “Kenyan employers and professionals in career development have a really “clear & cut” criteria of approaching hiring that they don’t see real talent even if it smacks them in the face. Ask me I have gone through it severally. Tribalism and connections are the order of the day.”

Would it then be okay if you changed your name and aped what Jose did to become ‘hirable”?

Talk to us. Have you been an innocent job search victim of ‘things’ you have no control of?

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