‘I’m a Latino Engineer and I Have to Use a Fake Name Just to Get Interviews’ - Grad Student Gets Repeatedly Rejected, Ends Up Taking Position As Janitor

Obtaining any degree is punishingly strenuous and requires a great deal of self-motivation and an even more ridiculous amount of dedication to complete. The various degrees in engineering are no different. Some argue that those majoring in Biomedical Engineering undergo a different set of challenges than those studying other majors and suggest that it can be one of the most difficult to complete. 

Finding a job after graduating is always a matter of luck and, frankly, perseverance - because companies and firms want ‘experience,’ but to gain experience, you must get a job. So to get the experience, you need the job, but for the job, you need experience… In short, this shit's challenging. And guess what makes the process even more grueling? Racists, of course. Unfortunately, our world has no lack of them.

u/tiredlatinoengineer took to Reddit to share his challenge in finding a job. At first, after graduating, he wasn't worried about finding a job. He felt confident because of his 3.8 GPA and experience working as a TA. After he realized that recruiters weren't exactly lining him up for interviews, he spent hours on cover letters and resumes — but they seemed to disappear into a hidden vortex, as nobody would even answer him. He noticed that his other classmates were getting interviews and even jobs - while he was left out high and dry. Some recruiters contacted him — hoping he would do labor jobs for engineering companies. 

Eventually, he realized that being of Latino descent, his last name was scaring away potential employers — which is a pretty sh**ty thing to register. He decided to experiment and started going by an Angelized version of his real name. Lo and behold… He started getting interviews! It wasn't enough — because he was still getting ghosted by interviewers. 

Finally, feeling singled out and rejected, he took a maintenance tech job at a local engineering firm in hopes that the work would link in some way or other to what he studied but was met once again with crippling disappointment after realizing he had become a glorified janitor. What made matters worse was that two of his classmates worked there as actual engineers. 

He went on to write in his post that he was still actively sending out resumes, but at that point, he felt discouraged and lacked motivation; He didn't feel very hopeful.

Take a look at the Reddit post for yourself.

The post accumulated nearly 6K upvotes, and many fellow Redditors shared their own similar stories or gave him some advice. Then Reddit worked its wonders, and one user that goes by the name u/Enough_Iron_6843 asked the original poster (OP) what type of Engineer roles he was looking for. OP replied ‘Biomedical’, to which another user by the name of u/Shellbellwow responded ‘DM me your linked in profile or your resume. I work in BioMedical and my company is always hiring and the diversity is pretty great. We do EVERY thing so I am looking for what specifically you do.’ 

Dear dudes and dudettes, what the actual f*ck. My cold little heart actually defrosted just a little at reading that. Scroll down and check out some more of the comments. While we're on the subject of jobs, if you're having a tough week (scratch that, year), feel free to check out these funny work memes that will get your boiling blood down to a nice simmer. And if those aren't enough for you, we have another list for those who despise their coworkers to the point where they believe they were put on this disgraceful planet with the sole job of inflicting torment.