Finding a new career path as a transgender woman

[Amoré]

Hi all

I have the opportunity to study into a new field than programming and I need to see what the options are.
I am looking for a field that is more open than programming to it as programming is very male dominated.
Sure there are some good woman programmers out there I am very good in what I do but every job interview and sometimes you don't even go to interview level just shifts focus from my skills to the transgender thing.

I can hide it as I pass 100% as female but the problem is certificates and all is still in my old name even work history.

Then there is just the fact about how you get treated as a female programmer in between men.
They try everything just to make you look stupid and I understand where the misogyny comes in.

You get bombarded with questions about do you know this or this.
Sometimes when a task gets given they will say something like do this if it is not to hard for you even though I am more capable of doing it than they think.

So it can be really unpleasant at times.

I am currently trying to get a twitch stream up as a transgender woman streaming openly but it is scary and not a lot of people join in. This is not to be the next big thing but just for fun and to keep myself busy because I do play world of warcraft a lot these days.

But I need to get my life back on track and need a new environment where people is more accepting.

[JanePlain]

Maybe contract work from home where your not in a male dominated office would work?  I know contracting is hard because of the up down none some income stream but its just a thought.  I was thinking of going back to that because the money is better then what I'm doing now and my SO lost employment and seems to be having a horrible time finding a suitable job.

All of these certification things drive me crazy.  Being Microsoft certified in particular makes me want to hurl what with the patch Tuesday nonsense.  How can so many bugs and security flaws exist in Windoze?  Its a real mystery to me how they train you to be productive with something as full of holes as it is.  But now that people are finding security holes in Intel and AMD hardware (That they designed in on purpose) I guess its all a house of cards anyway.  PM me if you think of anything we can do that won't drive us both insane(r)

[AnonyMs]

Any chance you can work remotely? It opens up the world and there's no doubt plenty of companies that don't care.

[Maid Marion]

If you get paid well it may be worthwhile to put up with the hassle, at least at the beginning.  Find an accommodating company and pave the way for more women to join you.

[Michelle_P]

Some companies, while predominantly male in their Engineering or Software departments, are also very supportive and great places to work while in transition.

At my last employer (Apple), I had two co-workers transition on the job. In both cases, the HR depearment reached out in advance to make sure all co-workers and people on other teams would know about the transition, know to contact HR with questions rather than the employee, and understand how to interact respectfully and politely.  The company medical insurance plans covered all transition-related medical care, and leaves of absence could be arranged for major medical procedures.

I was rather jealous of them!  Ah, well.  Better late than dead, I suppose.

[KatieP]

I would like to +3 (as in the third one to +1) the idea of trying to work for a slightly larger company that has an actual HR department. In those scenarios, likely, only the HR department will see any of the old names, and the HR department is not going to tell your co-workers about any of that. It's possible your actual hiring manager might find out, but if the Hiring Manager shares that kind of info inappropriately, the Hiring Manager would be in pretty big trouble in any of those companies.

Kate

[AnneK]

When I was at IBM, in the late 90s, they were actively trying to get more women into IT.  Close to half my department was female.

[Amoré]

This sound very interesting I will look at bigger companies with a proper hr department the last company I worked for I just walked away but it was a 7 man band and management couldn't keep my status to themselves.

I know I have to take the steps now to erase everything that was ever male about me that includes birth certificate and everything.

Unfortunately I stay in an area where I have to travel an hour in and out for work sometimes more and that is also tiring.

I worked for a good company that was in the end very supportive of my transition when I transitioned there.

[Maid Marion]

A job search is just as much as finding the right organization for you.  Some people would do anything for a civil service job that only requires an hour of work every day, but others would die of boredom!

[Megan.]

I work in the IT function of a global multinational. The pure tech roles are frankly more male dominated, though there plenty of other women aside me.

Also many of the other roles in IT have plenty of female presence,  and I'd say the split in my office isn't too far from 50/50.

I transitioned in role, and have been treated extremely well, it's a company where having 2 or more degrees is common (not me though [emoji16]), people are valued for their delivery,  knowledge and attitude; gender and sex aren't really factors at all.

HR is great, we have dedicated I&D functions, and diversity is a saught after commodity.

Sent from my MI 5s using Tapatalk

[CynthiaAnn]

I agree with Megan, large multi nationals seek diversity, and usually have more inclusive policies. Where I work it's ~30% female / ~70% male, and it's really doing the work, not your gender that matters in these organizations. After 6 years since transitioning, I really enjoy being myself at work, and building relationships with the newer employees.....

Cheers and happy hunting

Cynthia -

[Northern Star Girl]

@Amoré
Dear Amoré:
There are many career paths, including some that were mentioned in previous comments on this thread, that in agreement with many companies that would allow you to work remotely from home.

Also, if you have chosen certain fields of training and have the required knowledge you can be self-employed either working from your own home or having a place... office... or storefront for your own small business.
 
Many small businesses like that are run entirely by the owner/operator/sole proprietor.... and additional employees and bigger office spaces can be added as business demands.

The above "job" ideas that I mentioned help circumvent the issues of being accepted by bosses and co-workers.
Good luck in finding what works for your situation.   
Hugs,
Danielle

[DawnOday]

I don't know where you live so I've scoped out all jobs on indeed using 'Transgender" as my search term. Use this link to view. https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=transgender&l=

Also you might try this site to find companies that pledge not to discriminate.
https://www.hrc.org/campaigns/corporate-equality-index