I guess I should give a little background before I get into my post so it'll make sense. I'm a guy but I'm pre-transition and forced to present as female most of the time. I've been noticing how difficult it is to be taken seriously when it comes to finding a job and I think it has a lot to do with gender stereotyping. I do have two part time jobs now which, don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for but they're still not enough and offer no benefits so I'm always ambitiously searching for something better.

So I got a call yesterday from someone who said they had a job lead for a full time position that I might be interested in. (I've sent my resume and portfolio out to various companies and employment agencies for freelance work so calls like this aren't unusual for me). I was a little hopeful, thinking that it would be a full time job in my field but it turns out that the job opening was for an administrative assistant. I thanked the caller for their interest in my résumé but politely turned down the offer.

This isn't the first time this has happened. I've had two or three calls in the past about job leads for administrative assistant positions. I've never received a call about a job lead that's actually in my field.

The thing that bothers me is that administrative assistant jobs are stereotypically feminine. According to the job description I was given (the job just involved answering phones and making excel worksheets) I was definitely and very obviously overqualified for the position anyway but I know I was contacted because I'm perceived to be a woman.

It makes me angry that I spent four years getting a degree and I worked all while I was in college to build up my résumé but I'm only ever offered small secretarial jobs because people see me as a woman. It's not as if there aren't any other job openings out there either, there are plenty in my field but it seems like every time I apply I get overlooked because I'm not physically a guy yet.

What angers me even more is that in a few of the jobs I have had, I had to fight to be taken seriously. After I was hired everything would be fine, I was doing work in my field, but eventually I would get pushed into doing secretarial type of work. My boss (who was a woman) would do things like stop giving me work to do for clients and have me go file papers instead. I know that if I was physically a man, those things wouldn't happen.

Sometimes I tell myself that I shouldn't be too angry about it because I can't expect people to automatically know I'm a man if I don't look like one but it's still annoying and disheartening.

This wasn't just meant as a rant though. I'm curious to know if anyone else has experienced things like this and if there's any way to get around the gender stereotyping. I'm also curious about whether any of the ladies here have experienced the opposite of what I'm going through, i.e. being offered stereotypical male jobs despite being female.

If you're just sending your résumé out, what is on the resume? (Hasn't had a job yet)
I assume you could have a name change and put down a more masculine name.

My resume lists the names of the companies I've worked for and the job titles I've held at each place. Then under each job titles is a list of the resposibilities I had along with a list of the projects I've worked on. My portfolio has the actual samples of the projects.

It's probably not only the name on the resume that's a problem though. I've met with people from the employment agencies and other companies who have my resume on file so the problem there is that I had to present as female to them in person too. It seems like no matter how much I've told them about my work experience and qualifications it all goes over their heads. All they remember about me a few months later is that I'm female bodied and need a job so they either decide I'm unqualified or they offer me secretarial roles.

I've thought about using my chosen male name as my first name on my resume but I decided against it since I'm not able to legally change my name yet and I still have to present as female for now otherwise I run the risk of being kicked out of my parent's house and losing the jobs I do have.

This is a problem for cis-women as well, and is one of the major lessons my feminist friends have taught me.  Stay aware of this kind of treatment once you transition, and don't continue the discrimination once you're on the other side.

I've had that happen in the opposite way. Shortly after transition, I was having a hard time finding work and I applied for a job I was underqualified for in a business I really wanted to get into. I figured I wouldn't get it but the owner liked me enough to offer me a position as his administrative assistant while I learned the business. I was ecstatic! Until he was chastised by everyone about hiring a man for the position.
Yeah, I was told he liked me more for the position than the woman who had applied for the administrative assistant job but everyone including his wife told him it was a huge mistake to have a man answering phones and welcoming people. Oh the irony. Lol

It was illegal for him to do this, but he was foreign and probably didn't realize it.

Interesting. I've never had to navigate the job minefield post-degree as I went right into my Master's and got some paying gigs as a result of that. My name is clearly male, but some people aren't familiar with it as they don't have a Judeo-Christian background (which makes them think it might be female). I wonder if I'd have better success in the coming months jobwise if I go by my middle name lol.

That's ridiculous though - that people think someone is a woman and as a result discriminate and give them those kinds of jobs. I'd keep applying for jobs you ARE qualified for, don't take those jobs that you are overqualified for if you don't absolutely have to.

I did HVAC pre transition and out of fear quit doing it before I transitioned, never seen a female tech in my life. only clerical jobs in the industry. But next week I start a job at a huge industrial hvac company, It will be intresting to see how much sexism I get or good forbit get clocked.  Only female field service tech and installer I know of in northwest indiana.

All the people I know that have been to employment agencies all had one thing to say about them: they suck. Most of the jobs were bottom/entry level stuff. Guys were typically offered menial jobs or manual labor jobs and women were typically offered secretary jobs.

Could I ask what your chosen field is? You mentioned portfolio, so I was thinking something more creative.

Sorry, I almost forgot about this thread :r


Anna,
Don't worry, I won't forget what I went through while in a female body. I've already experienced sexism from both sides and I don't appreciate any of it.


FA,
Sadly, I'm not surprised to hear that something liked that happened. I've seen something similar happen with a teaching position where a male substitute wasn't given a full-time position as an elementary school teacher because his female competition was thought to be better qualified just because she was a woman.


caleb,
I do plan to keep applying for jobs rather than settling for something I'm overqualified for. One part-time job I have now is in my field so I'm thankful for that. The only problem is that I'm already being pushed into a secretarial role again. It's really frustrating to be hired for a job I wanted only to be pushed into a role I didn't apply for a few months later.


Teela Renee,
I can't say I've ever met a female HVAC technician but I'm sure there are some out there. I hope everything's going well for you so far in the job.


insideontheoutside,
Yeah, the employment agencies that I've worked with haven't been too helpful in the past but there are plenty of full-time entry level positions in my field so I'm sure there are some available that they just aren't refering me to. My chosen field is creative marketing. I do copywriting, graphic design and web design. It seems like when people hear the part about writing, they just automatically think "secretary" but I actually write content for ads then design and help market them. I also design websites then code them or provide the written content for them. So there are a lot of job titles I could fit under which is why it's even more frustrating that no one will hire me for any of them. My goal is to find a higher level job that combines all of those responsibilities, like an art director or creative specialist position but right now I would take anything in the creative field that's full time so long as I don't have to be an administrative assistant.

There is stereo typing in some fields still today. I could not have had the career I did had I transitioned before I applied. I was a Firefighter/Paramedic and I never saw one Transgender applicant get hired for the Firefighter position the whole 28 years I was in it. There were a few in the Paramedic position though. I started a late transition process due to several factors (employment not one of them), but I knew I would have been fired for something if I had tried to transition while working Fire Service. Sad, but true.