Transsexual WITH A Decent Job?

[Leki]

Is it possible to be a transsexual and have a high-paying successful career?

Most transsexuals I speak to are either unemployed or work minimum-wage jobs. Is there a brighter outlook for jobs?

Thanks

[LordKAT]

There are a number of successful transitioners here. Doctors, lawyers, technicians, etc. I can't see why you can't be anything you want to be.

[Rejennyrated]

Well now let's see... I've been a materials Scientist and Software engineer with clients including NASA

Then I was a videotape editor at BBC Televison before rising to Technical Operations supervisor at the BBC Archive.

I've been an information systems consultant for a major charity.

I've served with the Royal Navy as an "attached civilian engineer"

I've been a senior consulting engineer for Airbus - and now I'm training to be a doctor.

As I transitioned very young all of these jobs have been done while openly trans. (no cheating by doing a job and then transitioning after) - I was recruited to ALL these AS a transwoman as far back the early 1980's. I also hold 4 degrees from top universities (soon to be six degrees when I complete my MB BS and become a doctor) I've never been unemployed and I've never claimed benefits. Does that answer your question?

Oh and I have many many trans friends who have held equally stellar careers. Its a complete myth that all trans are dropouts.

[Ms Grace]

I don't have a high paying job but it isn't minimum wage either.

[Dena]

I paid for everything with computer programming but I have know a number of others in the engineering fields. Several even held high security clearances because of the type of work they were involved in. Much of it depends on the education you get while you are still in school. Transsexualism can draw a good deal of attention away from our studies and often we feel a need to deal with the transsexualism before dealing with our education needs. That is why I have high hopes for children being diagnosed and treated early so they can finish school and have more options in life.

[Jenna Marie]

I don't have a high-paying position, but that was a choice (I prefer flexible working hours and convenient location), and I definitely do have a "career," in the sense that I got a Master's degree to hold this job. It's the same job, and the same employer, that I had before transition. There are horror stories out there, but there are success stories too.

[OCAnne]

Hello Leki, it helps if you have a desired/in demand skill set.  In my case I am EVP (Executive Vice President) where I work in the live mobile television industry.  Will not mislead anyone, it has been extremely challenging.

While Hollywood does not have trouble exploiting transgender people for in front of camera roles.  They don't appear to embrace employing them behind the scenes.  ABC and E! who I do special event coverage for, seem accepting.  Unfortunately have found I need to prove myself all over again even to ABC and E!.

In my opinion, the only way transgender people can be assured opportunity is if employers were required to do so through a quota.  Otherwise who would select me over a person who would not be a distraction to the workplace?

At this point I am lucky to have a job in my field but for how long?

Thank you,
Anne

[Cindy Stephens]

Being American as well as married to a totally accepting woman, I still had to postpone any true presentation at work in order to maintain my moderately high paying job as well as health benefits for my family.  I attended a transgender support group for a number of years.  My experience was similar to yours.  People may have had decent jobs, until they transitioned.  Several thought that everything was set up before transitioning-then out the door.  I do live in one of the more conservative (Florida) parts of the USA.

Fortunately, the spirit and opportunities here seem to be changing. St. Petersburg has the largest pride event in the southeast.  One of the grand marshals is a customer service rep and loan officer for PNC Bank.  That would have been unthinkable even 10 years ago.  That said, I think anyone with physical customer contact would find a great deal of pushback and complaints from conservative customers. There are many phone centers here that pay decently, close to or at "living wage" and seem to have no problem with presentation because the customer never actually sees you. 

Sorry to ramble on, but I am more pessimistic than some on this subject.  Success is not a given for anyone these days, but being even slightly clockable is a definate negative on the resume.

[Lara1969]

I am general manager of a high tech start-up. I am not a shareholder. I think my income is above 95% of the working people and I have a German brand company car.

Unfortunately I am not as well paid as Martine Rothblatt, the best paid female CEO in the US. She is transgender.

[Leki]

Well now let's see... I've been a materials Scientist and Software engineer with clients including NASA

Then I was a videotape editor at BBC Televison before rising to Technical Operations supervisor at the BBC Archive.

I've been an information systems consultant for a major charity.

I've served with the Royal Navy as an "attached civilian engineer"

I've been a senior consulting engineer for Airbus - and now I'm training to be a doctor.

As I transitioned very young all of these jobs have been done while openly trans. (no cheating by doing a job and then transitioning after) - I was recruited to ALL these AS a transwoman as far back the early 1980's. I also hold 4 degrees from top universities (soon to be six degrees when I complete my MB BS and become a doctor) I've never been unemployed and I've never claimed benefits. Does that answer your question?

Oh and I have many many trans friends who have held equally stellar careers. Its a complete myth that all trans are dropouts.

Is this real? It seems to good to be true!

Thanks for sharing everybody, it is nice to see that there is hope for me

[Jessie Ann]

I am a lawyer and make a very good income.  I have been an attorney for almost 30 years but only transitioned earlier this year. I know of a number of other attorneys who are transgender.  I also know some in the computer industry, business management and other technical fields. All of them make a very good living. It is possible to be very successful and be transgender. Unfortunately, some of the ability to be successful depends on where you live and work. Some places are very transgender friendly others, not so much. 

[Stevie]

 I am a engineering technician for aerospace/defense company in California. I have been transitioning openly for the last three years, been full time almost a year, everyone at work has been supportive as they have seen this change have so many positive effects on my life. I know I have been very fortunate in this regard and I am thank full for it. I make a fairly decent wage somewhere in the middle class range (for California) which is fine with me never really had any desire to be rich, money is not the most important thing in my life.

[Jenna Marie]

Cindy : I can't speak for your area, obviously, but I work in a very "contact with the general public" position (I'm a reference librarian at a college, who also teaches some classes on reference to both undergrad and graduate students) and there have been almost zero complaints. Well, relating to me being trans, anyway; the students think I'm a hardass.   One student said nasty things in the five years I've been out, and he was reprimanded sharply by HR and was polite ever after. I don't know what people are thinking, obviously, but to be honest I don't care - the result where he was polite to my face and in public was all I required.

Oh, and I write a freelance news column plus some radio and TV interviews, and while people have gotten super critical of my "liberal bias" and whatnot, nobody has targeted me for being trans even in comments on newspaper sites (well-known as cesspits of the internet!). I didn't mention that originally b/c it's a weekly column that doesn't pay all that much, so it's neither my real job nor "well-paying." The only significant thing that changed when I came out is that now I occasionally get calls for interviews on trans stories as well as the general political news coverage I was doing.

[AnonyMs]

I have a decent job, although I'm not out partly because I want to risk my income right now. I've no reason to believe it would be a problem except what I read online, but I'm not prepared to risk it.

Its hardly ideal being transgender, but how many non-trans people have "decent" jobs?

[AnonyMs]

I paid for everything with computer programming but I have know a number of others in the engineering fields. Several even held high security clearances because of the type of work they were involved in. Much of it depends on the education you get while you are still in school. Transsexualism can draw a good deal of attention away from our studies and often we feel a need to deal with the transsexualism before dealing with our education needs. That is why I have high hopes for children being diagnosed and treated early so they can finish school and have more options in life.

I didn't know I was trans when I was young, but I wasn't entirely normal. I sometimes wonder if it made me more inwardly focused and academic, and I've buried myself in my work during my career. That's all helped me enormously; talent is nothing without application.

There's a personal cost to all that of course.

[Rejennyrated]

Is this real? It seems to good to be true!

Thanks for sharing everybody, it is nice to see that there is hope for me

Cindy was one of my referees for medical school. She has seen my resume she can vouch for the fact that this is 100 percent genuine. I really have done all of that and a few more things. I did have a lot of luck it is true and I accept that I am not typical but I exist and therefore the attitude which assumes failure is inevitable is false!

[Dena]

I didn't know I was trans when I was young, but I wasn't entirely normal. I sometimes wonder if it made me more inwardly focused and academic, and I've buried myself in my work during my career. That's all helped me enormously; talent is nothing without application.

There's a personal cost to all that of course.

My pet theory is that we tend to be a bit brighter than the population from wrestling with the impossible problem of ourself. You tend to find indications of that on this web site because the people here are bright, witty and in general very interesting people to learn about. I also found computers a distraction from my personal issues. I could spend hour concentrating on a problem pushing the emotions out of my mind giving me relief from my personal problems. Yes they would return to me at home but as I never was into drugs or alcohol, I took what I could get.

[Sammy]

Are You asking about those who transition and then seek employment or those who transition while having established career? If the latter case is relevant, then I am civil servant (human rights lawyer). It is governmental job, maybe not the best paid, but quite interesting because we are often dealing with high profile cases (I do have security clearance as well). I have LL.B. and two Master's degrees - in the Criminal Law and Public International Law + European Law.
Also, as I found out the whole area of human rights is quite acceptable for transgender people (and LGBT in general), so in the end I turned out to be lucky .

[Eva Marie]

I know of several transgender people (including myself) that work in professional, white collar jobs, so yes we are out there.

[Carrie Liz]

Define what you consider "successful" or consider a "decent" job...

I work as a poker dealer, I make about $25/hour, and no, I didn't have this job before transitioning. I got fired from two jobs in a row due to transitioning, had to apply for this job as a newly-transitioned trans woman with NO work history under my legal name, all of my references having been pre-transition, and I still got hired, and am doing quite well. And if I can do that in a field which is completely customer-service oriented, where my entire job is interacting with hundreds of people on a daily basis and making sure they're having a good time, which you'd assume is the last job a trans woman living in a conservative blue-collar city would get hired for, trust me, other people can too.

One of my best trans friends (who used to post here but doesn't anymore,) just had a job offer from a programming company for $100K/year, and in fact I have probably 5+ trans friends who are working in tech and thriving.

If you mean like being a millionaire CEO, there's not many of them. But if you mean a good stable full-time job that can pay your bills, let you live comfortably, and support a family, then yes, it's more than achievable for a vast majority of trans people.

Being trans has been proven to be a factor for hiring discrimination, but really it's not the big death sentence those in bad positions are afraid it is. Really it's just a matter of having the job skills and the people skills to be a desirable candidate, just the same as it is for cis people.