The Job Fair was really wonderful -I totally recommend that
early stage trans women (at least in gay cities like Minneapolis)
get dressed up in something nice and professional looking
(I wear a black skirt and subtly pink jacket, black boots with
2.5" heels, no purse, no nail polish and full "daytime" makeup)
and go to a job fair if you are out of work. I do not pass, but
I obviously am presenting myself as very feminine, but not one
person brought up anything regarding being trans, or gay or
that I was wearing women's clothing or anything. Of course
they are trained to avoid bringing up things which may seem
discriminatory -like race, age, sex, but that extends in Minnesota
to sexual orientation and apparantly non-conforming gender
identification. Which means they are not going to talk about it
if you don't - and as a trans women (well hopefully someday)
I really need to learn how to present oneself as a person first,
and talk to people about my skills and education and prior job history
without mentioning my gender issues or my emotional issues or any
of that stuff that really has nothing to do with anything if I am going to
function as a valuable member of a company (except at Lunch when
I am, going to totally talk about the cute dress I bought at Macy's the
last time I went to the Mall, or whatever)
So this is the third Job Fair I've gone dressed up to, and besides leaving some
resumes with representatives for four companies that I had some skills
to offer, I also signed up for the free resume critique (and a very nice lady
helped me develop an objective section which I will incorporate into
my resume - she spent about 20 minutes with me and was very helpful
and very nice.
Then I did a mock interview and that seemed like it was about forty minutes,
and I was a little nervous ( and felt a little drained afterwards) - but she
was exceptionally skilled, it's just I'm a very shy person and add to that
I'm in a skirt and it's tough for me. I've made really amazing strides and do
present a lot of confidence and am very much at ease in a social situation
when I can just present myself the way I see myself, but now I am competing
against cis-women and cis-men who aren't even shy so it's hard work, but
luckily for me, I feel better about myself presenting this way then when I
am presenting as a man, so I project more confidence and socialize much
better - but I still need to make improvements and in the real world there
is the 300 pound gorilla in the room that no one is mentioning -so yeah,
one has to interview really well to have any chance or they'll pick a cis-person.
So what did she offer as feedback - be very careful to not say anything that
could even be misinterpreted as being a criticism of a past employer - for instance
I was being given too many jobs to effectively handle - I phrased this in a way that
sounded like I was being critical of the company, she stopped me, we talked about
what had happened, I brought up that as much as I liked the job, that many jobs was
preventing me from giving the homeowners the time to the job I wanted to do
because I had to rush off to the next job to meet the schedule - so I went back and
rephrased my answer to emphasize my desire for customer satisfaction rather
than a perceived criticism of 12 hour days without breaks (because honestly it
was not the 12 hour days, it was the feeling that I really wanted to meet the
customers expectations but the schedule made that impossible) but OK
so the interview continues I stumble on a question that is very general but
asks for a specific example of a generalized principle -I have problems with
questions like that -I tend to answer generalized questions with generalized
answers. We went over the question a bit and she talked with me and
did come up with a specific example to illustrate a point, and it was an
excellent example but this is a weakness for me in an interview, and I'm
going to start preparing some answers to questions like these - so again
very valuable and she was really good at helping me out - but oh it
was kind of tiring honestly , but we got through the mock interview,
and then she went over the critique and mentioned things like how
my eye contact was not bad but I really need to make a point of
almost constantly maintaining eye contact, and that sometimes the
volume of my voice trails off as my conversation continues,
and that I have to avoid some nervous habits with my hands, stuff
like that, things that any person on an interview needs to master if they
want to land a professional job , and afterwards she asked if she
could keep a copy of my resume, and of course I said yes, so who
knows, maybe it was a real interview... But it was very helpful,
and I walked out of the Convention Center feeling very good
about it in a tired sort of way.
Anyways afterwards I went over to the church and did the boiler thing
changed in a different skirt and went to a Trans Support group meeting,
then went over to the Townhouse for a drink (I had about an hour and half
to kill before the drag contest -but it was so pretty dead so I just had a beer
and drove back to Minneapolis).
The Drag contest had 4 girls this week, including myself and I didn't win
(sigh) but it was fun and I wore a couple pretty outfits, and I got to talk
with the other contestants, but the people in the bar didn't interact with
me at all, so ehhh, that's kind of frustrating -usually it's women I talk to and
it was more of a mens crowd, and men just don't approach me, and of course
I don't approach men (not that I have anything against men as the the caption says)
but it was fun and on the positive front - I offered another contestant a ride
home, and so I wound up talking about my interest in starting a drag band
and they have been in a band and know other drag performers who also
play guitar and stuff, so hopefully I can start making some progress on this.
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