Quick update

I apologize for leaving everyone hanging on the job thing after my last post. I've been meaning to write about my new job and how I came about getting hired there since it's - at least to me - an interesting story. For now, I'll just say that I started the new job about a month ago, it's going great, and I'm very happy.

Honestly, the nature of the company I'm working for right now has left me in limbo as to how I should approach this blog in the future or whether or not I should do it at all. I've erred on the side of caution by not posting anything for the past month but I feel like I have a better idea now of what will be fine for posting and what wouldn't.

Thank you to everyone who is still hanging in there!

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.

Bonus: a conversation with Susan

So I was cleaning a bunch of files off of my hard drive the other day and came across this lost episode from July 7th, 2007. I gave an update on my life at the time, which is quite old now and then Susan and I talked about feminism and trans women's perceptions of themselves as "real" women.

ENDA

I'm finally back with a new entry! In this episode I talk a bit about what's been going on with ENDA and play a clip from my appearance on the Out Loud Radio show last Sunday, October 21st. I also talk a bit about why I no longer support HRC as well as some updates on what's been happening in my life for the past two months.

Here are links to some of the things I mentioned in the show:
Joe Solmonese's speech at Southern Comfort 2007
www.transadvocate.com
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
National Center for Transgender Equality
United ENDA coalition

Job search

This entry was actually recorded a month and a half ago before I went out to California for Susan's wedding. I didn't realize I'd never posted it but figured better late than never. :)

In this episode, I have yet another new intro song from a band I played with a few times and actually sang a song with on stage back in the "old days" when I was doing the macho rock star thing. Most of the episode deals with starting my job search in earnest and what that's been like since going full time.

I also talk about how incredibly awesome my parents continue to be with my transition and something very special they offered to help me out with.

I'm finally done with my name change :)

This entry is mostly about the completion of my name change. I also talk a bit about work and the possibility that I may be needing to look for a new job very soon.

I conclude today's entry with an essay about why we should cherish being transsexual. I mentioned that I was going to try to find the essay's author and the closest I could come to that was a posting at transsexual.org called Cherish that seemed to be an original posting by the site's author. If anyone knows the real identity of the author, please post it in my comments or send me an email.

New intro

In today's entry I talk about my parents outing me to my uncle, my first foray into finding a job as Jessica, a party at my friend Allison's house and yet another update on my name change.

I also talk about the rebirth of Susan's Radio Show - Online and how I'm going to be on a panel about podcasting at California Dreamin' near the end of April.