I’m grateful I live in Silicon Valley. I grew up in a small town with few minorities, and my Chinese middle name was met with curiosity or ridicule. I sometimes even said I didn’t have a middle name because when kids learned it was “Yuhua”, they asked me to say it over and over again, not in a good way, and butchered the pronunciation. So I feel for job seekers with atypical names because everyone deserves to have their name pronounced correctly. If you are the CEO of Microsoft or Google, it’s easy, but if you are looking for a job, how do you get prospective employers to say your name right?

1. Add how to say your name on LinkedIn. Next to my name on my LinkedIn profile is a little sound icon that if you click, you can hear me say my name. Adding the recording is very easy: on the LinkedIn mobile app, click the pencil near your name on the upper right, go to “edit intro,” select “add name pronunciation,” hold the button down, and say your name! You can rerecord if you don’t like that take. See here for LinkedIn’s instructions. I do check if folks have used this feature on their profile page if they have unusual names so I can get it right.
2. Correct people gently early on. HBS grad and etiquette guru Sara Jane Ho breaks down how to do it without making it awkward: Wait for a pause in the conversation, then say in a nonjudgmental way (tone is key!): “It’s actually pronounced [say correct pronunciation of your name], but don’t worry, it happens all the time.”
3. Make sure your recruiter is pronouncing it correctly so we introduce you correctly. When I am doing a search for a company and send them my top candidates, I will add how to pronounce any unusual names.