This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sam Struan, a 36-year-old consultant and résumé writer based in Scotland. Struan went viral when he worked at an Apple store in Vancouver, using his birth name, Sam Sung. He left the job due to a career switch. His words have been edited for length and clarity.
Growing up, I received a few silly comments or playground chants about my name, Sam Sung, but nothing like what happened in my early 20s.
During that time, I worked at an Apple store in Glasgow, Scotland. There were friendly jokes about Sam Sung working for Apple, but it wasn’t a big deal. Then I moved to Vancouver and started working at an Apple retail store there.
I’ll never forget the moment I went viral. I was working at my other part-time job, and my phone started ringing like crazy. I thought a family member had died. I peeked and saw a text from someone saying I’d gone viral on Reddit, and they sent me a link.
It was 2012, and I had never heard of Reddit. I wasn’t on social media, apart from LinkedIn, so I thought the link was a scam and ignored it.
A few hours later, I received several missed calls from the Apple store. Someone had posted a picture of my Apple business card online, and it actually went viral. I was terrified.
I thought I was going to lose my job
When I called Apple back, they asked if I knew about the post.
I had just moved to a new country. I was early in my career, and my first thought was that someone had posted online about me, involving work, and I was going to get fired. Looking back, it’s funny because I probably had the most job security I’ve ever had. If Apple had fired me, it would’ve caused even more commotion.
On my first shift back, a reporter came in to talk to me, and after that, Apple pulled me off the shop floor for a little while. Colleagues were told not to identify me when people came in and asked. Soon after, I lost access to my business cards.
Courtesy of Sam Struan.
People came in and called asking if Sam Sung worked at the store, and I just pretended it wasn’t me. I have a Scottish accent, and assumptions about what I would sound like based on my appearance meant that they didn’t recognize me on the phone.
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It only lasted a few months, and then the commotion died down, but I was so scared, and I just wanted to keep my head down and stay employed.
The year after I went viral, I left my job at Apple
I left Apple in 2013. I was ready to move on from retail and start a new career in recruitment.
In 2014, I auctioned off one of my old business cards and other pieces of my old uniform for charity. There was a lot of excitement. Children’s Wish, the charity I was supporting, received an uptick in donations around the auction. It wasn’t major by any means, but we ultimately auctioned the card off for over $2,500. That was the best part of this experience.
I was pretty involved in the charity, which was why I did it. It was nice to take a moment that felt so personally terrifying, even though it was just a silly joke, and do something good with it. I did two smaller auctions later, after I adopted a new name.
I didn’t want to be known for being an internet joke
I hadn’t considered adopting a new name before I went viral, but that moment changed everything. It’s not like being known for doing great work or being a philanthropist; it was just an online joke.
Also, Samsung, the Big Tech company, has its own brand. I was early in my career, trying to establish myself, and from a social media and email perspective, all the handles were taken. This was especially true once I moved into recruitment, where an online presence and professional brand matter. As I thought about it more, it made sense to adopt a new name.
I had already moved on from working at Apple and begun a new job search. I wanted to put this behind me. After some consideration, I chose to adopt the last name Struan because it’s the name of one of my favorite places in Scotland — a village on the Isle of Skye.
Some people still call me Sam Sung
Even though it’s been over 10 years, people still call me Sam Sung in their phones. They just refuse to change it, including my sister. To be honest, my parents don’t care too much.
The only people who use Struan are those who only know me by that name. Many of my friends, who I knew before I adopted a different professional surname, pay no attention to it.
Make no mistake: No one really recognizes me, and that’s exactly how I want it. But sometimes, if it comes up in conversation that I worked at Apple, the moment arrives, and they’ll be like, “Oh my god, are you that guy?”
I don’t regret changing my name, but I wish I’d had more fun with it in the moment
The reality is that I adopted a new name because I didn’t want my name to be a joke, which it had already been. But I also changed my name because I was afraid of discrimination, having a non-anglicized last name.
Studies have shown that your name can influence the number of opportunities you have and the likelihood of receiving interviews. I don’t have a before-and-after data point on the opportunities I received once I started using a new name, but I know the rules: having a certain name means better career opportunities.
I’m glad I adopted a new professional name, and I’m not sure if I would have if the viral moment hadn’t happened, but I wish I could tell my younger self to see it as a funny thing. Not to stress out about my job because it was fine, and maybe even go on LinkedIn and thank people for reaching out instead of deactivating my account.
I wish I’d just chilled out a bit about it and been less worried about job security and potential work opportunities, and enjoyed it for what it was.
Do you have a story to share about going viral or changing your name in the workplace? Contact this reporter, Agnes Applegate, at aapplegate@businessinsider.com.
