When a 36-year-old worked for the tech giant in Glasgow he changed his name to avoid ridicule when his business card outed his name online and he became an overnight internet sensation.
A former Apple employee called Sam Sung has revealed he changed his name to avoid being the butt of internet jokes.
The Scot went viral in 2012 after a photo of the business card he used while working at an Apple store was posted online. The 36-year-old, who now goes by the name Sam Struan, worked for the tech giant in his native Glasgow before moving to Canada.
He became an internet sensation after a customer he helped at an Apple store in Vancouver revealed he had the same name as their rival tech company. Struan said he adopted a new name to escape the attention because he thought it would hamper his employment prospects when he left Apple.
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Now a successful recruitment consultant, he said he chose the surname Struan after the village on the Isle of Skye which is one of his favourites places to visit. He said: “I left Apple in 2013. I was ready to move on from retail and start a new career in recruitment. 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 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.
“No one really recognises 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?’ 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.
“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.”
Sam said he was left “terrified” by his sudden internet fame and feared for his future employment prospects but now wishes he had been more relaxed about it. Speaking to Business Insider, he added: “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. 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.
“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 recognise me on the phone. 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. 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.”