A few weeks ago I applied for an executive position at the International Rescue Committee within their Marketing Department. I was contacted via email by a woman named Judith Fullmer. She identified herself as a human resources manager for the IRC. We exchanged a few emails and she showed a lot of interest in my background and credentials. We agreed to have a conference call to further discuss the position.
I received a call from her the following day and within 1-2 minutes into the call she started to ask questions that in my opinion were of a racist nature and totally out of place. I've been in the US 15 years. I'm originally from Africa. I have an accent, but that has not prevented me for performing any of my duties as a marketing professional. I have a M.S.in communications and a MBA from Cornell. Again, my accent has never been a concern until now.
Ms. Fullmer asked me about my strong accent and how can I work in the marketing/PR field with such a tough accent to understand. She immediately asked me if I had a legal right to work in the US and if I could provide proof of that (up front on the first 5 minutes of the interview? Isn't this supposed to be asked at the end?). I clearly pushed back on her a little and told her that I did not appreciate her type of questioning. She laughed at me and told me ok, we are going to stop here because anyway I know that the hiring manager won't even consider you after hearing you talk. I was furious.
She said that anyway she was going to forward my resume to the so-called manager (but she didn't asked me any other questions at all). This was the end of it. 5-7 minutes. Shut down because the way I talk.
I followed up with her the following week via email and she replied back stating that the position was already offered to another candidate. Out of curiosity, I had a friend of mine send over her resume applying for the same exact position. To my surprise, Ms. Fullmer contacted her to learn more about her background (the position was in fact, available). My friend got on the phone with her (she is American, no accent at all) and she had the nicest conversation with Ms. Fullmer. Note that Ms. Fullmer did not ask her for her ethnic background or INS status.
Here is my complaint, the International Rescue Committee is supposed to be an international organization where people from all race, religion and backgrounds work together to achieve humanitarian work. What am I missing here? I've been the director of e-marketing for a large financial institution in NYC and the VP of marketing for a non-profit organization in New Jersey. My background and qualifications are (or better yet were) a perfect match for this opportunity. So, what failed?
I believe that this has to do with the door-keeper effect or one person's racial convictions. I don't blame the IRC entirely but I do blame their human resources department for hiring people like Ms. Fullmer and allow them to give the organization a bad name and reputation.
Nowadays, I'm the new VP of e-commerce for a large retail consortium, and trust me, my accent was not a disqualifying factor during the interview process. Lesson learned. There are still ruthless and racially-prejudiced people in corporate america and they have the power to play God with other people's future, closing life-time career opportunities at their discretion. What a shame.
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