Looking for work

As I mentioned in my post over at Bilerico, I'm once again looking for work after the end of my most recent contract yesterday. For the past year or so, I've only looked for shorter-term contract positions since I knew I was going to be having surgery at some point and I figured that offered me the most flexibility. Well, that's behind me now so I'm wondering if I should try to find something more permanent or stay with contract type stuff?

Honestly, I really enjoy contract work since it keeps my chops up and I'm usually moving on before things get boring. The down side is that it's harder to have financial stability when you're looking for something new every 3-6 months with sometimes long periods of nothing in between.

Then there's the whole trans thing. I'm fortunate in that I seem to be able to get work without too much hassle from my past. In my career field - at least with the smaller companies I often find myself working for - background checks haven't become the norm yet. I sometimes worry about prospective employers googling me and finding out I'm trans but that either hasn't happened yet or they don't care.

I should mention that we have employment non-discrimination protections here in Colorado. As big a supporter as I am for that sort of thing, I'm not really sure how much protection it really provides. There are so many reasons employers can give for not hiring someone that I'd be amazed if someone actually told me they weren't hiring me because I'm trans.

That said, I currently find myself in an interesting position to put our ENDA to the test. I just received a call about an hour ago from a recruiter for a consulting company I worked for a couple of years ago as a male. I missed the call, but the person left a voice message asking for me by my old name and talking about all of the opportunities she currently has for someone with my skillset.

Since she's already showed her hand (she has positions that match my skills) and already has my resume - albeit an old one, I'm guessing - she'd have a hard time suddenly reversing course on me. Now I get to make the fun phone call where I sort all of this out and, hopefully, still get presented to her clients. If circumstances were different, I'd probably stay away from any companies I worked for before transitioning but I can't really pass anything up right now.

I'm going to go call her...I'll let you know how it turns out.