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PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

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Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#101

Post by pseudalopex »

dotancohen wrote: post #97
space_fountain wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not commenting on that post because I didn’t see it but just noting. Some people support affirmative action. There are arguments that can be used that are somewhat convincing. Correcting generational feedback loops is hard and may require more than just blind indifference. Personally I think affirmative action can go too far, but it is very much a live issue in politics for good reason. Meanwhile there aren’t many wh…

> Meanwhile there aren’t many who would say discrimination against > people from the Middle East is good You assumed that the poster was from the Middle East by the name Mohammed. But his name, accounting for spelling variations, is the most popular male name in Britain for well over a decade.

> You assumed that the poster was from the Middle East by the name Mohammed.

His Twitter profile said immigrant and had the flag of Lebanon after.

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#102

Post by 4gotunameagain »

dang wrote: post #93
curious_cat_163 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know why the other post was flagged?

It was a reddit thread with a baity title on a guaranteed flamewar topic. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32823355

Maybe if posts like that were not flagged, the topic would be less of a flamewar

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#103

Post by TraceWoodgrains »

When I asked the author of the viral thread, he said he took the wording directly from a reddit thread a few days ago, then deleted his acknowledgment, hid my question, and locked down further replies within minutes. Something is very off about this story. https://twitter.com/tracewoodgrains/status/15716306207442452...

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#104

Post by TraceWoodgrains »

sct202 wrote: post #73
svet_0 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/xcrv6k/i_sent_1...

It's a little suspect that this reddit post from 5 days ago is almost the same as the linked tweet, but the premise is kind of switched up. 23 hours ago from the linked Twitter: "So I did an experiment, I am looking for a postdoctoral position and decided to check to what extent racism in science could be. I took my CV and changed the name to a more western one. I'd send it out with my real name, then a few days late…

He acknowledged his wording was taken directly from the story, then immediately deleted his acknowledgment: https://twitter.com/tracewoodgrains/status/15716306207442452...

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#105

Post by TraceWoodgrains »

Context on why the Twitter thread was deleted: https://twitter.com/tracewoodgrains/status/15716489346947563...

He nuked his account from orbit after confirming he copied from a reddit thread in response to closer scrutiny. Without extensive documentation of a sort that seems unlikely now, it seems best to treat this whole story as a fabrication.

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#106

Post by dmix »

wai1234 wrote: post #11
ak_111 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually worst than I made out in the title. The responses he got under his original name were "almost all negative", not actual invitations. While almost all the response under his pseudonym were positive, some getting out of their way to pull him in.

It's actually worse still. ALL of the 17 responses to the real name were negative if you read what he actually posted. That's an infinite increase. NOT 5x.

Because it’s fake

Fake things always get greedy

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#110

Post by LatteLazy »

random314 wrote: post #49
LatteLazy wrote: post #36

Cynical question: are there 200+ post doc positions for someone to apply to at one point where their experience and publications are actually relevant? How many positions is "on the differentiation of the leaf morpho-physiological traits between native and non-native plants on a Mediterranean island (Mallorca)" actually relevant to?

Great point. This is exactly why no one should use their native names in job applications.

I work in finance, everyone i deal with who is Chinese has 2 names, a local one and an English one.

So you talk to people, they are introduced to westerners like me as James or Susan. Then you find out they are actually Bai Zhang but they are (understandably) tired of spelling it, getting it mis-pronounced or getting called Zhang Bai or similar.

I always thought that was very sensible.

I wonder if I should do the same? I would if I moved there.

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