Tiffany Trieu, an Asian American woman, was rejected from a job after she was considered to be not American because of her LinkedIn profile picture.
Trieu, who posted on Facebook about the incident, was applying for a water feature design position via LinkedIn. The company was looking to hire an American to fill the position and rejected Trieu on the assumption that she was not American. Trieu wrote on her Facebook that the only information the company had was her LinkedIn profile picture.
Her post has since gone viral.
Whilst Trieu did not disclose the name of the company, nor the name of the person she was corresponding with, the incident is still shocking.
In the post, Trieu writes,“racial discrimination in the job market is real. It’s unfortunate I had to experience it myself to believe it.”
Trieu goes on to explain how disappointed she felt in being turned down based on her race, “I am speaking up about this as I and many of my friends are on the job search. We are all looking for a work environment to pour hard work into, give back to the community, and build a career (hopefully paying off college loans, too). For someone to turn you down before they consider what you can offer because of their assumptions based on how you look, your race, your nationality…that is extremely disappointing.”
She points out that the president of the company, with whom she corresponded, was a white male, “I applied to a water feature design position and sent a follow-up LinkedIn message to the studio’s president. Unfortunately this is what I received, and I also must note the president is a White male.”
Trieu included a screenshot of the conversation, highlighting the president’s response as being the most disconcerting aspect, “this conversation is given that the only information he had was my profile picture on LinkedIn. The most disconcerting part is HIS RESPONSE, not taking responsibility for his wrongful assumptions. That he “not [a] bad” person would never jump to the conclusions that he did.”
Trieu encourages others who have faced any kind of racial discrimination to speak up, “if this happens to you, know you don’t have to face it alone. We should speak up. Our silence can keep privileged people in their positions of power.”
“Thank you for listening. Let us focus on HIS RESPONSE, rather than mine. This is where the problem lies. The next step is for us to do something. So how do you help? Let’s make discrimination, racism, -isms a part of our everyday conversations.”
