A Romanian jobseeker, Georgiana Popescu, has accused British firms of discrimination after stating that she was only offered interviews after she sent out her CV with an English pseudonym.
Georgiana Popescu, originally from Bucharest, moved to Leeds, West Yorkshire, in 2015 to complete her undergraduate and master’s degrees before starting her job search.
The 26 year-old claims she applied for more than 100 jobs, but only secured roles in warehouses and retail, while her British coursemates went into jobs related to their degree.
Georgiana then decided to apply for 40 roles using two identical CVs and applications while changing her name to the ‘traditionally British’ Sarah C.
She claims she wasn’t surprised to hear back from 11 companies offering her interviews as ‘Sarah’, while her identical applications with the name Georgiana Popescu were seemingly tossed aside.
Georgiana says she doubts her applications under her Eastern European name were read at all.
After years of warehouse and retail work, she was delighted to finally land a job as a fraud analyst in March last year.
„I kept the story to myself for years because I was scared I’d get hate comments such as „go back to your country” or „you are here to claim benefits”… I didn’t get any benefits and I wasn’t even eligible for a maintenance loan […] It’s a huge issue. It really made me realise the issue was my name rather than my application and skills. […] Before moving here, I was an intern at a local newspaper. After moving to the UK I didn’t get any job offers other than warehouses for years. If you look at the statistics, they are Eastern European specific jobs”, notes Popescu.
Compare this to women of color who have anglicized their names for the benefit of their careers.
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