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.

Bilerico post

Bil posted his story of our trip last Friday and posted mine a little later. After reading his, I have to say he's certainly a much better story teller than I am. :)

The comments on Bil's post have gotten fairly colorful...from the proper usage of the word "tranny" and some of Bil's bathroom antics to whether or not I'm sporting facial hair. Check it out if you get a chance...

Pod-fading

Hey everyone...or those of you still stopping by to see if there's anything new here. :)

I apologize for the lack of shows for the past 4 months or so. I think I've effectively pod-faded for now and am not sure when/if I'll be posting another show. The Brief Moments of Sanity show was keeping me pretty busy as far as podcasting goes and was pretty much covering the same ground I usually talk about in my shows. I thought that once we went on hiatus or ended that show that I'd get back to this one right away and pick up where we left off there.

Well, that hasn't been the case so far and, even though I've had the time, I don't find myself wanting to do my show when I have the chance.

I feel like I've been in a pretty transitional place for the past few months. I don't want to say it was because of surgery, but the timing is awfully suspect. Whatever it is, I just haven't felt that fired up about trans issues lately and my passion for any type of activism has fallen to near zero. I've even come pretty close to pulling my blog and podcasts off line a couple of times.

That said, I finally feel like the haze of cynicism and apathy is starting to lift. With the exception of Brief Moments of Sanity, I've been lying pretty low for a while and am just starting to look around for new opportunities to get involved. I'm still not sure what direction that will take me in, but it's a start.

For all of you still checking in on me - thanks for sticking around! In the immediate future, I think I'm going to try my hand at blogging in this space. It's not something I've done before so I can't promise I'll be any good at it. It just seems like the most low-key and non-intrusive way to keep in touch with the community right now while I figure out what's next. If it becomes a regular, enjoyable activity, maybe I'll have found my answer.

Speaking of which...I had the pleasure of spending last Friday with Bil and Jerame of The Bilerico Project. Bil asked me if I could write up our trip to Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak from my perspective for him to post over there. I wrote it up today and sent if off to him. I'm not sure in what form it'll end up over there - as its own post or part of Bil's posts about the trip. Once I find out, I'll at least post up a link here if not cross-posting what I wrote in its entirety. It should all be going up later today, so stay tuned...