I have absolutely, I just have worried about the optics of changing my name and having people find out, like it would seem as though I'm running from things and making it worse.
Just change your last name. People will assume it’s due to marriage (which, depending on your gender, will either be totally normal or mildly abnormal). Only the background check companies will look into it and they usually are just there to check criminal record.
That would be great if it worked like that. I know it's stupid in my position, but I like my name, and I know I didn't really do anything wrong. I feel like it would absolutely just be like letting the offending party win, if I did this. But I need to grow up and accept my new reality.
My manager did and I could tell they believed, but the optics of it all I imagined made it too toxic to be worth defending me over. Racist, sexist content was falsely attributed to me.
In what sense were there “optics” beyond the company? Was this incident public, or just on some forum that would only show up when people Google your name?
I’ve never had an employer request academic records after working at multiple FAANG companies — except perhaps right out of college, but I’m not sure even then.
Unless you’re applying for a job that’s high-profile (like VP or C-suite), or in a highly regulated industry, I wouldn’t expect this.
Plus you can probably contact your university registrar with your legal name change and ask them to update the transcript to the new name.
HireRight background check for 2 different BigTech companies required me to put the contact information of my University’s registrar. I think they did actually verify that I received the degree I said I did, despite that being over 15 years ago now.