: Job search update :
I've started sending out resumes to recruiters and PR agencies now, and I got my first bite today. One of the recruiting managers at a medium-sized agency with offices in New York, San Francisco and London emailed me back and wants to meet with me - hallelujah! Of course it's probably best not to get my hopes up too much, but it is very encouraging to say the least. The company has about 50 employees and its culture seems to be similar to my former company. Plus, I love all three of those cities, so if I have a chance to visit the other offices, I'm all for it.
The bad news is that things are still dragging on my legal name and gender change. My attorney is out of town until Monday, but things are getting pretty tight now time-wise, with a possible interview coming up. If I were being optomistic, a court order could take three or four weeks to secure, then I would have to go to the Department of Public Safety and apply for a new driver's license, but it would be two more weeks until I would receive it through the mail. I would also have to get a new social security card and change all my credit records. This is all predicated on the assumption that the judge even grants my request in the first place, which is by no means guaranteed.
Without the legal identity change, I won't be able to go "stealth" as I would have liked to. My preference would be to leave Houston as a t-girl and start my life anew in a different city as a woman, without any reason to reveal my past. I certainly pass well enough as female to those people who have never met me, and I am looking forward to a new life where I can stop being preoccupied with my TG issues and just live life to the fullest. Unfortunately, if my driver's license still says "M" instead of "F" on it, there will always be the possibility that my trans status will cause problems for me.
I hope to hear something back from the agency in the next couple of days to see about scheduling an interview. In the meantime, I will be sending out more resumes and getting my portfolio ready. I've also scheduled lunches with some of my former co-workers to meet and ask for their help in my job search. Now that my physical transition is largely finished (pending SRS), I am in a position to emerge from my shell and face the world as my new self. Social transition, however, will take many more years, and possibly the rest of my life. But for today, I am happy, and I know that I am finally headed in the right direction.
The bad news is that things are still dragging on my legal name and gender change. My attorney is out of town until Monday, but things are getting pretty tight now time-wise, with a possible interview coming up. If I were being optomistic, a court order could take three or four weeks to secure, then I would have to go to the Department of Public Safety and apply for a new driver's license, but it would be two more weeks until I would receive it through the mail. I would also have to get a new social security card and change all my credit records. This is all predicated on the assumption that the judge even grants my request in the first place, which is by no means guaranteed.
Without the legal identity change, I won't be able to go "stealth" as I would have liked to. My preference would be to leave Houston as a t-girl and start my life anew in a different city as a woman, without any reason to reveal my past. I certainly pass well enough as female to those people who have never met me, and I am looking forward to a new life where I can stop being preoccupied with my TG issues and just live life to the fullest. Unfortunately, if my driver's license still says "M" instead of "F" on it, there will always be the possibility that my trans status will cause problems for me.
I hope to hear something back from the agency in the next couple of days to see about scheduling an interview. In the meantime, I will be sending out more resumes and getting my portfolio ready. I've also scheduled lunches with some of my former co-workers to meet and ask for their help in my job search. Now that my physical transition is largely finished (pending SRS), I am in a position to emerge from my shell and face the world as my new self. Social transition, however, will take many more years, and possibly the rest of my life. But for today, I am happy, and I know that I am finally headed in the right direction.
