Nigerian Man Changed His Name To Get Job Interviews In The UK

Racism exists in many forms. People harass you for the colour of your skin, where you are from, and your name. Yes, your name.

A Nigerian man from the UK had to change his birth name claiming that he used to get rejected from job interviews earlier, but ever since the change, he started to get interviews "within a week".

The Mirror

Inein Victor Garrick was born in Nigeria, and switched to using his middle name after struggling to get any job interviews using his first name. In an interview with The Mirror, he said, ¡°I started using Victor as my first name due to the barriers I faced whilst applying to jobs after university. I never seemed to get past the first application stages even though on paper, I had all the necessary requirements for at least an interview. In addition, the few calls I had, the recruiters had an issue in saying my first name correctly. With comments like 'your name is difficult or hard to pronounce'. I always felt I was on the backfoot and sent some unconscious bias."

¡°The moment I changed to my middle name Victor, on my CV, within a week, I had multiple calls for interviews," he explained.

The 34-year-old has been in the UK since he was 22 and said that people would regularly mispronounce his name. He said that by changing it to Victor, he helped himself to a more accepting audience.

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However, last year, Inein went back to his roots and reverted to his real first name. He felt like he was hiding a part of himself. He said: ¡°I think it did really hit me. Last year, I almost felt like I hid a part of myself all those years. It wasn¡¯t shame per se but I wasn¡¯t my true self. People would hear Victor and assume I was British or English and I wasn¡¯t highlighting my true identity.

¡°I¡¯m proud of where I¡¯m from and I think I hid behind Victor. This opened that door to talk about Nigeria and my cultural heritage, it¡¯s a fantastic conversation starter.¡± Inein said adding that he feels as though he¡¯s been ¡®reborn¡¯ after going back to his old name.

He added: ¡°I hadn¡¯t heard it in so long. I've been in the UK since 2009 and besides my immediate family, no one's ever called me by my first name, until the last year. So when you think about it, you can¡¯t believe it¡¯s been that long. There¡¯s a lot of joy but there's also a bit of sadness as well that is taken that long."

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