Immigrant is snubbed for 100 jobs ..until he changes his name
Employers respond to James Carr but not to Thiago Carmo
A BRAZILIAN immigrant to Scotland told how he failed to get an interview after more than 100 job applications until he used a British-sounding name.
Thiago Carmo, 42, said when he applied under his birth name, the only response was automated rejections, despite having two degrees and a masters. But when he made a further 30 applications to the same jobs under the fictitious “James Carr”, two thirds responded offering an interview. A head hunter even contacted him as “James Carr” but dropped his interest as soon as Thiago mentioned he was here under a visa. Thiago, a qualified marketing expert, believes businesses in Scotland are allowing prejudice and bias to influence hiring decisions. He said: “I am a very curious person and I wanted to know why I was getting absolutely nowhere applying for jobs. That’s why I did the experiment and the results shocked me. “I am very difficult to place, so sometimes I am mistaken for Arabic or Moroccan. “I often get racist comments. Every time I am flying, I go early to the airport because I know I will be stopped by security.”
Earlier this year, Thiago was among a panel of experts who candidly shared experiences of workplace discrimination during the first Connect Three Strive to Thrive diversity conference in Glasgow.
He said: “The more I started talking to other people, I realised many more people had the same experience as me, especially black people and those from ethnic minorities.”
Scottish Government figures show that between 2011-12 and 2020-21, the employment rate among ethnic minorities rose from 56.8 to 59.9 per cent and for whites, from 71.2 to 73.6 per cent.
Just 48.8 per cent of women from minority backgrounds were in work compared to 71.8 percent of white women. The Covid pandemic hit ethnic minorities hard, with a 3.6 per cent reduction in employment since 2019, compared to just 0.9 per cent within the white population.
To tackle similar discrimination against other minority groups, Thiago set up his own social enterprise Passion4Social, which creates employment opportunities in marketing and advertising for disabled people.
He said many of his employees were previously overlooked by other businesses despite possessing a variety of valuable skills and experiences.
Viana Maya, an anti-racism consultant and founder of pRESPECT, which specialises in diversity and inclusivity training, gave a similar account of her experience with workplace bias.
Viana, who also spoke at the Connect Three conference, said she also missed out on job opportunities.
She said: “People with African accents are often asked ‘how will you fit into our culture?’ during interviews, to then be turned down because ‘although you’re a great candidate, you’re not going to fit in’.”
Viana criticised how, for some businesses, diversity only appears to be a tick-box exercise.
She added: “Companies are hiring people for their characteristics but then not making them feel like they belong.”
I wanted to know why I was getting nowhere applying for jobs THIAGO CARMO ON HIS APPLICATION NAME CHANGE