FTM job complications?

[Nygeel]

I'm in NY, as a heads up. I've been discriminated against. I live in a county without transgender protections. Some cities and counties have protections and hopefully in the next year or two GENDA will pass.

[poptart]

Apply for the job with your preferred name and pronouns, do not disclose the fact that you're trans. This fact has no bearing on your qualifications for a job, which is what the interview is for. Once hired, you'll be required to provide legal information. Then is the time to provide your birth name and explain that that is your legal name but you go by the other one. If the person maintains their professionality, there should be no questions asked.

I would not state explicitly that you're trans unless they ask. The only relevant information is that your legal name is different from your preferred one.

[nickm1492]

Apply for the job with your preferred name and pronouns, do not disclose the fact that you're trans. This fact has no bearing on your qualifications for a job, which is what the interview is for. Once hired, you'll be required to provide legal information. Then is the time to provide your birth name and explain that that is your legal name but you go by the other one. If the person maintains their professionality, there should be no questions asked.

I would not state explicitly that you're trans unless they ask. The only relevant information is that your legal name is different from your preferred one.

You can't do that because when filling out the application, they ask you if you have gone by any other name. They need this for the background check. And depending on if you are applying for a job that will become your career, then this information, or rather witholding it will work against you.

[tgchar21]

You can't do that because when filling out the application, they ask you if you have gone by any other name. They need this for the background check. And depending on if you are applying for a job that will become your career, then this information, or rather witholding it will work against you.

In some places (not necessarily correlated with how TG-friendly it is as the concern is typically focused on other types of name changes*) they are not supposed to ask for that on an initial application or at an interview unless specifically worded for the purpose (e.g. if they need to know about the use of another name in order to properly verify your work or school records). After you have received a conditional job offer it may be a different story; likewise for certain jobs like police officer or those that require a security clearance they can ask you lots of things (like family details) that are prohibited for most jobs (and federal jobs are exempt from any state or local restrictions). (The analogy I use is how some applications ask for your age or birthdate, but on the main form shouldn't beyond whether you're of legal age for the job for most jobs because of widespread discrimination against older workers; but on certain other forms they can ask for it.)

*For example, in California (which is one of the most unfavorable states in this particular regard) they are allowed to ask unconditionally if you've ever used another name while in New York they can only ask on a need-to-know basis (according to these sources). In some states they are allowed to ask moderately general questions like if you've ever worked under another name (which is still unfavorable unless you legally changed your name before your first job; presumably this level of protection is to protect against discrimination for those who were adopted). You will probably run onto non-compliant applications, but I won't give any suggestions on what to do in those cases (all I'm telling is what, from my own research as a non-lawyer, the rules appear to be).

Having said that, if you haven't legally changed your name you will almost certainly need to inform them about the issue sooner or later (what I said above applies to your previous name if you've legally changed it).

[Chamillion]

I've been wondering something similar. If I already have all my legal documents changed (birth cer, ss, license) and had top surgery, been on t, before I change jobs, how would that work if I was looking for a new job but needed my pevious work as reference, since my old job would have my previous information? If that question made sense lol sorry I just didn't want to start a new topic.

Call your past employers and ask them to update your records with your new name.  I hadn't done that and was applying for jobs and had to fill out the part that asks if you've worked under any other names and was not able to get a job.  I can't say it's all because I'm trans of course, since the economy has been pretty crap.  So I called and asked my past jobs to change it, one of them refused so I just didn't list that one as one of my past jobs.  I'm working now and my employers don't know I'm trans; there was no question that asked about gender on the application so I just didn't say anything (my gender is changed on my license but nowhere else, so they saw the M there and social security card doesn't have sex listed).  For anyone who's not established in a career and has only worked part time jobs in high school or college I would really suggest changing your name legally, asking past employers to update their records, and then just not informing your new job.  In most cases, your trans status isn't relevant, so why bother letting them know?

[Sindo]

I've been wondering about some similar issues myself. I just graduated from graduate school in January and now desperately need to find a job. It's been a couple of years since I was last employed (the whole grad school thing) plus all the places where I've worked in the last, oh, 15 years have all gone out of business, which is both cool and not cool  because of the whole references thing. I have been doing volunteer work for the past year so I do have a reference of sorts. My career field is pretty lgbt tolerant (I'm an archivist/librarian) so that helps, but jobs in archives are a bit scarce at the moment so I have to find something, anything to bring in some income while job hunting. I'm just starting the whole transition process and have been stressing out about things like interviews and such because I don't want to have to dress up like a girl. This thread has given me some things to think about.