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If it makes anyone feel better, every time I go to the career center I see more white people than I see people of any other color or ethnic group, but to be honest I still think that my main problem is either being hispanic or having a foreign accent.
Let's suppose that my problem is my accent. Ok. So I go to an interview, I open my mouth, and the sound produced by my mouth evokes all sorts of negative associations in the mind of the interviewer. Why hire me when he can hire someone who talks like him and possibly also looks like him?
Unless he is a liberal nut or is one of the few Hispanic-Americans with a management job he has absolutely no incentive to hire me. (And for all he knows I am an idiot who went to college thanks to affirmative action.)
If it makes anyone feel better, every time I go to the career center I see more white people than I see people of any other color or ethnic group, but to be honest I still think that my main problem is either being hispanic or having a foreign accent.
Let's suppose that my problem is my accent. Ok. So I go to an interview, I open my mouth, and the sound produced by my mouth evokes all sorts of negative associations in the mind of the interviewer. Why hire me when he can hire someone who talks like him and possibly also looks like him?
Unless he is a liberal nut or is one of the few Hispanic-Americans with a management job he has absolutely no incentive to hire me. (And for all he knows I am an idiot who went to college thanks to affirmative action.)
If you are really concerned you are being discriminated against, maybe you should look for work south of the border.
Those two aspects are hard to change. Focus on other aspects that can improve your employability. Maybe obtain a PHD in bioinformatics. No one will care about your accent then.
If you are really concerned you are being discriminated against, maybe you should look for work south of the border.
I have thought about that.
I guess I could stay in this country and work a blue collar job or go "south of the border" to a country where my college degree might be appreciated. Salary-wise I'd probably end up worse off but overall I can't possibly be better off doing mindless work.
In my region most of the immigrants are educated and likely to be in management positions. We have a very low percentage of hispanics, most of our immigrants are european, asian or middle eastern, but there are hispanics, 2.3%. I can't tell from their appearance. There are many Italians in this region. You don't realize they are hispanic until you hear them speaking Spanish with each other. They just look Italian, especially the women. I don't know where you live, but you'd probably have an easier time finding a job in a region where there aren't immigration tensions.
In my area there is are a lot of Hispanics who only speak Spanish. They are usually uneducated (a fellow parent is proud to have completed 4th grade) and they work in non-skilled labor positions.
Go a few miles and you find Hispanics that are undereducated and bilingual. They have jobs in business and customer service.
Go a few more miles and you find Hispanics that are educated, speak English fluently without thick accents and have jobs in management, medicine, science, etc.
In the end, the reason you don't get a good vibe in interviews has more to do with your attitude than any thing else. As a college graduate you have a leg up on many other applicants. You are also bi-lingual which gives you a leg up.
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