Addressing Indians for Americans & Addressing Americans for Indians

By: Josh Healan - Managing Partner

We had the pleasure of sitting in on an interview yesterday for a senior level Automation Engineer. Our client, a major food manufacturer, and the hiring manager was a senior executive over engineering.

Our candidate, a highly talented Controls Engineer, very experienced with exactly the right background our client was looking for. Worth noting our Controls Engineer was born in India.

Within a few minutes of the interview starting I could see the hiring manager show just a little concern on his face. Honestly it may have been in response to the little concern on my face. While the first couple of minutes of the interview started smoothly, our candidate addressed the manager by name, which is what caused the slight concern.

Our candidate is extremely professional and well spoken. But when addressing the manager our candidate repeatedly referred to him by his last name. I've heard this many times before and it is very common for individuals coming from India who may be newer to the United States.

Here's an example of what was said. I am of course changing the names for confidentiality. Let's say the manager's name is David Collins. Rather than addressing the manager as "David" or "Mr. Collins" the candidate repeatedly referred to the hiring manager as just "Collins".

While this is highly unusual for anyone being born in the United States it is important to understand that this is very common in parts of India. So much so that I have at times received guidance to not address Indian nationals by their first name until we have developed a personal relationship.

My hope in writing this is to educate hiring managers that, when an Indian national addresses you by your last name only, this is simply a cultural difference and not a communications challenge. While genuine communications challenges may be a sign for concern, cultural differences should be embraced.

Likewise if you are an Indian national living in the United States and interviewing for jobs, it may benefit you to understand the typical structure for addressing others. Typically when addressing someone we don't know or haven't developed a personal relationship with yet, we often start with "Mr." or "Mrs." before that person's last name, or family name. Using the same example as above the proper way would be to start with "Mr. Collins".

As you become more familiar with someone you will almost always address them by their first name. Using the example above you would simply say "David". As you learn more of the common names of individuals born in the United States you will find that many first names also have short versions. "Dave" is short for "David". As you work to get to know someone, as in this example, you may even ask "do you go by Dave or David?". You may even get a response such as "my friends call me Dave."

Again the goal is here is simply to educate. I hope this has helped someone better their effectiveness in addressing and engaging others.

If you are interested in learning more I found the article below to be helpful and informative.

https://www.business-in-asia.com/countries/india_etiquette.html#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20Indian%20surnames%20usually,invited%20to%20use%20first%20names