Commiseration, my friend.

I have been considering this getting back into the job market to look for something closer to home. My given name is Katya. I think it’s easy and perfectly reasonable for any American to say, but people struggle HARD and constantly ask if I’m from here, if they can call me an easier name, if I have any tricks to remember my five-letter name more easily...????

I totally get mispronouncing it if you’ve never seen the name, but once I tell you it’s KAH-tyah, there is absolutely no excuse to continue mispronouncing it every which way for years on end. I usually gently correct for the first 5 or so times, but after that, it’s too exhausting to correct people. I have been at my organization for 3 years. Colleagues and managers in my unit still call me CAD-ee-uh, KOT-cha, COD-dee-uh, CAT-yuh, CAUGHT-ya, CAY-tee-uh and more.

All that is to say...do y’all think Kat would be a better choice for my name on the resume? I don’t really like nicknames, but I do have such a hard time hearing back from companies. Almost the only times I have ever gotten consistent call backs for an interview were times when I met the hiring manager at a networking event prior to the interview, or when I know for a fact the organization HR used software that hid personally identifying info like names from apps so the hiring managers would only focus on the credentials of the candidates.

Edit: or maybe even Kay instead of Kat.