See where you can go

As you begin your search, do research on each company to find the most inclusive ones. You may be able to tell based on whether they have a nondiscrimination policy, have an employee resource or affinity group for LGBTQ+ employees, sponsor bias and discrimination education for employees, offer health plans that cover parental leave for parents who adopt, and offer health plans inclusive of trans people. You can also use the Human Rights Campaign website to see how over 1,000 companies rank in the Corporate Equality Index for policies, practices, and benefits for their LGBTQ+ employees. 

Legal name 

Write your preferred name on your resume and your legal name on the official job application or background check forms. Sometimes you will be able to put your preferred or chosen name in parentheses on the latter documents. Follow up with the employer during the interview process to explain why the listed names are different. Talk to your career counselor or another trusted person if you would like to practice this conversation in advance.  

LGBTQ+ student group involvement  

As you decide whether to include your LGBTQ+ student group involvement on your resume, consider that some employers may use it against you in the hiring process. While this is one way to determine whether a company is right for you, you will have to decide whether you want to include that involvement on your resume at all. 

Should you decide to include LGBTQ+ extracurricular activities on your resume, you can list their full names or list them more broadly as “anti-discrimination organizations.” Only you can decide how much you want to share. 

As you prepare for the interview, remember that interviewers should not ask about your marital status, gender, or sexuality. Some of these questions are illegal and show the negative character of a company. If an interview asks you questions like this, consider responding by asking them how the question is relevant to your ability to perform the job.  

Attire 

No matter what your gender identity is, you should dress for the job you want. This means business casual or business professional attire that makes you feel confident. 

Interview the interviewer

You should ask the interviewer questions to make sure that the company is someplace where you want to spend 40 hours a week. Once you’ve asked questions related to the job itself and you feel you’ve made the company want to hire you, ask questions related to how welcoming the work environment is. Consider asking multiple people the same question to see if you get the same answer. This will help you determine if they are answering truthfully or just saying what you want to hear. 

You can get a better sense of how welcoming the environment is by asking questions such as: 

• Are all employees asked to complete bias training? 
• Does your company have all-gender restrooms? 
• How does your company handle bias incidents against LGBTQ+ employees? 
• How would you describe the company culture? 

Onsite observations

If you are invited to do an in-person interview, you can look for the following things to get a better sense of how inclusive the work environment is: 

• Single stall, gender-neutral restrooms 
• Flyers about LGBTQ+ causes/initiatives 
• How people are dressed 
• How groups of people are referred to (i.e., “guys” versus “everyone”) 

None of these observations will give you a full picture by themselves, but you can consider them along with other information you gather to determine if the company is a good fit for you.