Employment

[Tristen Cox]

I've been looking for work for a couple of months now. Had a few interviews in which I put on my best male clothes and went in with full character, positive attitude and quickness to answer questions without thinking or stuttering along the way.

My eyebrows are feminized and I tend to have clear polish on my nails at all time, but otherwise I shouldn't be showing any other signs that I crossdress or are TS. So far I've got no where. On one occasion I had two interviews and thought I had the job. It's hard this time of year, but I'm getting depressed wondering if they're just discriminating because I look a little different regardless of my qualifications or attitude.

I'm wondering why I can't find out why I wasn't called or hired, and what I can do about it if in fact they are discrimating. After all I live in California so a little difference shouldn't be so bad right?

I can't afford to stay out of work for much longer. Nor can I be certain this is the reason I've not been hired. I could see if I had completely transitioned, or had surgery of any kind but I haven't. Can they just bin you cause you pluck your eyebrows a bit???

Maybe it's all in my head.. I'm just hoping. Should I tell them I'm Mexican?

[LostInTime]

I am looking at your pic and wondering how you might even try passing as male. I had to try recently for some court stuff and all it did was create confusion (and amusement on my part).

The job field may have something to do with it too. I work in and out of the IT sector and it is extremely male dominated. At a recent meeting I attended I was the only female employee who worked at my level. The other two were glorified administrative assistants.

[Diane]

After looking at your avatar, i can't see  you passing as a male. When you are attempting to pass as male but obviously looking female, maybe it confuses your potential employers.

[SarahFaceDoom]

You may not be being discriminated against at all.  It's tough to get a job out there right now.  What kind of qualifications do you have?  How much experience do you have in the fields you are applying?

It took me about 3 months to get the job I currently have.  2 months to start even getting interviews and phone calls.  And like you say, you live in Caliifornia which is pretty progressive.

You may need to lower your aim a little bit for now just to get a job to pay bills.  And then keep applying.

My roommate is not transgender, but he has been looking for a job for about 6 months now.  It's hard for everyone out there in today's economy.  You're either making millions or you're barely getting by.

Also if you have a legal name change already, you might just go ahead and start interviewing as a woman.  It again depends on what kind of job you're applying for and how competitive the field is(you might get discriminated for being either a woman or transgender!  What a country!).

Don't get discouraged though.  I think there's a perception out there that if you are transgender you can't get a job.  But look how many people on this site are paying for internet, SRS, and a litany of other expensive things.  Obviously some percentage of them have a source of income.  So don't sell yourself short.  Just keep working at it, and you'll find someone.

[Tristen Cox]

Yeah the avatar is quite a transformation. If you saw me in drab you'd see the only thing slightly feminine about me is the eyebrows. Is that all they look at? My voice is deep and everything about me is male in appearance. I have basic experience and am not applying for anything other than what I am qualified for. (call them crap jobs even) There's nothing much going on here except retail. Just getting depressed that I'm not even given a chance when I know for a fact I'm a really hard worker. I've done just about everything including construction, auto mechanics, accounting and so on. Not in a short spread of time but over the last fifteen years. I don't want to work a couple years and find myself back here looking at where I'm at and wondering how others did it. Just not lucky. I can live with that.

Maybe I'm being paranoid and it's just the wrong time of year.  Anyhoo thanks for replying, guess it was getting to me when I wrote this.

[tekla]

How much of an electronic footprint are you leaving?  Given searches including, but also more advanced than Google, can people take your boy name and find the my space/360/forum postings or any of that?  Most employers have access to (because they pay to) some pretty amazing stuff these days.  Once they have your social security number they can not only get your credit history, if they want to pay for it (and many do) they can get your purchase history.  If someone has your ISP number, its possible for them to get a history of your internet usage, what kind of history is there?

However, that might just be paranoid, times are hard, jobs are hard to come by, and it just might be that.


This is just basic stuff here, but play with it and you might be amazed.  Any employer would have much more advanced means.
http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/how-to-track-down-anyone-online-329033.php

[SarahFaceDoom]

How much of an electronic footprint are you leaving?  Given searches including, but also more advanced than Google, can people take your boy name and find the my space/360/forum postings or any of that?  Most employers have access to (because they pay to) some pretty amazing stuff these days.  Once they have your social security number they can not only get your credit history, if they want to pay for it (and many do) they can get your purchase history.  If someone has your ISP number, its possible for them to get a history of your internet usage, what kind of history is there?

However, that might just be paranoid, times are hard, jobs are hard to come by, and it just might be that.


This is just basic stuff here, but play with it and you might be amazed.  Any employer would have much more advanced means.
http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/how-to-track-down-anyone-online-329033.php

Though to be fair many employers don't care thaaaaat much, because they are people too.  I think most employers just google your name just because they are bored, and that's mostly it.  And check for a criminal history.  But unless you're applying for a really big job, no one is going to go through your ISP just to employ you at Dunkin Donuts.

Posted on: December 09, 2007, 12:31:53 PMOh and as far as people noticing your eyebrows, most people don't notice your eyebrows, they notice your eyes.  You may think everyone is looking at your eyebrows and fingernail polish, but for the most part people aren't that observant, especially if they don't know you.  Plus there are medical conditions to do with eyebrows hair loss.  Even if they did notice your eyebrows and fingernail polish, that wouldn't mean they would think you're trans.  Some gay men have both of those things and they still find employment.

It's just really tough to get a job these days.  I would recommend craigslist if you haven't been looking there already.  It wasn't until I started applying to jobs on craigslist that I really started to get a lot of interviews this past summer.  I don't know exactly why, but it's true.  And I would imagine even more so in California, since that's where Craigslist was founded.

[tekla]

I'm hoping Tris is looking for more than Dunkin Doughnuts, but more of these check are being done a), if you have any access to money, (or the ability to change credit records) or b) if it involves children in any way. And, more and more, as employers find themselves being sued for the actions of their hires they have tended to check deeper.  Also they check your filings for workman's comp, or unemployment, any past actions against an employer like a discrimination suit.

Given the economy and the internet, the number of people applying is so huge that proving any discrimination is all but impossible.

Also, anyone working in an HR department is going to use whatever they have in order to prevent their decisions from coming back to haunt them.