It's Always The Shoes (or, My Life Is A Cheesy TG Story)

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So, today I had my first in-person, face-to-face job interview since I transitioned a couple of months ago. I haven't heard back officially yet, but it felt like... but I'm getting ahead of the story. Let me back up a bit.

Way back in March, before I'd transitioned, I got a friend of a friend at a company I'd like to work at to put in my resume, under their employee referral program. She invited me in to meet her and some other folks over coffee and see if we mutually felt like it would be a "good fit;" we did. She submitted my resume for two positions for which I was highly qualified. Several of the people I met seemed to hit it off with me, and promised to put in a good word for me with HR and the hiring managers.

I never heard back.

Fast forward to three weeks ago. I saw on craigslist that the same company now had an opening for... well, me, pretty much. There are, as far as I know, five people in the Seattle metro area with the specified qualifications, myself being one, and I happened to know that at least three of the other four were not currently actively looking for work. I knew of the existence of a fifth such person but hadn't met him (until he interviewed me today, but that's another story). So, I sent in the same resume I'd submitted before, only with my new name and email address, listing the same friend of a friend as my employee referral. I sent her an email letting her know what was going on.

Lo and behold, a week later I got a call asking to schedule a phone interview, which happened a week after that. It went swimmingly, so they asked me to come in for four grueling hours of inquisition face-to-face. People in other professions goggle at me when I tell them that, but it's pretty standard for us tech geeks. That got scheduled for today.

Two days ago, it occurred to me that I had nothing suitable to wear to a job interview as a woman, even for a tech geek position at a laid-back (even by Seattle standards) company. I emailed a couple of female programmer friends for help, and got some good advice--the upshot of which was that I could probably cobble together something passable from what I had, but I really ought to make an emergency shopping trip and try to find something better. In my thank-you reply I said as much, adding wistfully, "Just wishing I had a fashion adviser to go with me...." I wasn't expecting either of them to volunteer; one is known for having a "fashion dungeon" (her words) and the other lives two states away. Two big states.

The next morning I flippantly updated my Facebook status to say, "I have a job interview tomorrow, and I haven't a thing to wear." Within a couple of hours, a friend who's only known me since my transition--my best male friend's girlfriend, with whom I'd already bonded a bit, but wouldn't have dreamed of presuming upon--replied, "Let's shop!" I responded, "You're on!" and we organized an expedition for that evening.

After introducing me to the bargain hunter's paradise that is Marshall's, where we found some really good stuff at great prices but not quite the perfect thing, she realized--get this--we wear exactly the same sizes. Except for shoes, of course. Which is pretty astounding, given that I'm nearly a foot taller than her, and she's quite slender and petite. Well, coincidences like this do happen--just not all the freaking time, as you'd be led to expect from TG fiction. Right?

So we went back to her place to look for something I could borrow, and it turned out she had two huge closets stuffed with clothes I would be delirious to own myself. Within minutes we had found a high-waisted pencil skirt with a matching belt and a simple black U-neck t-shirt that I knew instantly would be perfect for my interview, so I tried them on and they fit--you guessed it--perfectly.

Even so, she insisted on throwing a few more armsful of stuff at me to take home and try on just 'cause she thought it would look good on me. Then she informed me that she makes a habit of cleaning out her closets every few months to make room for new stuff, and was planning to just give all her cast-offs to me from now on. If I wanted them.

I mean, come on--this stuff just doesn't happen in real life--only in soppy wish-fulfillment TG fiction, right? ...Right?

Which brings us back to today. As I started to say, I haven't heard back officially yet, but it felt like it went really well. If so, they'll be calling me in for round 2 shortly, and then if I survive that without a TKO they'll extend an offer and I'll leave the ranks of the unemployed. That's a lot of "ifs," so wish me luck or knock wood or tell me to break a leg, or whatever your preferred superstition or expression of support may be.

What's on for tomorrow? Well, I've got an appointment with one of our very own BCTS authors who works at a local salon (I won't say who without permission, which I haven't asked for) to cut and color my hair, just before I go in to get my new driver license with my new name and the 'M' replaced with an 'F.' I figure, those pictures are always awful anyway and I'm going to be stuck with it for the next five years, so I might as well make it as un-awful as I can.

Can you tell I'm enjoying the ride?

Comments

More Leeway?

Believe it or not, I am still working on finishing Leeway (no, honest, Daphne and Puddintane have seen rough drafts of what I've been working on, just ask them) and it is my fervent hope that having a steady job will make that easier, rather than harder to focus on.

Nah, you're okay ...

REALLY cheesy TG fiction would be if her shoes fit you also AND they magically change you into a 23 year old 5'6" body, blonde hair blue eyed who has a trust fund coming to them when they reach 25.

^_^

But anyway, shoes are always a problem. I take a size 9 shoe myself and while it is not exactly rare it is a bit bigger than average for a woman who is 67 inches tall or so. Then again I blame it on my flat feet.

Kim

Feet

Mine are size 10--well, 10 1/2 if you want to get technical, but except for running shoes and hiking boots I go with tens because they're generally easier to find, and comfortable as long as I keep my toenails trimmed. :) I could maybe squeeze into a pair of 9s in a pinch, but my friend wears size 8. So, as I told her, her shoes at least are safe from me.

For your height

... no problems !!! It is perfectly proportionate. One time I was in Sears 20 years ago ( gosh has it been that long ? ) and from far away I saw a girl about 5'2 or 5'3 trying on shoes and for some reason I felt something was out of proportion. Curious, I walked up after she had left and glanced at the shoes she had left behind - they were 10s.

I have been mostly content with my feet size since - especially when I mentioned to my woman manager in the last company what my shoes size was in the course of some girl talk and she said - yeah, that's normal - she was complaining that she had overly small feet for a woman her height !
( Errr she wore a 5.5-six and she is 5'6" so yeah her feet are a little on the small size for her height - poor baby, my heart bleeds ;) )

It is a strange world hon.

Kim

:-D

"Break a knock wood!" ^__^

Sometimes the best things in life are cheesy as can be, and all the better for it. As one of my brothers keeps saying, "I like cheese." So, go girl! Keep on enjoying, and take luck.
-Liz

-Liz

Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"

Yeah !

So now you know the answer to the age old question:

Are you a woman or a mouse ?

.... I ... Like...Cheeeeese ...

:)

Kim

Good luck

Angharad's picture

sometimes good things happen serendipitously. Enjoy.

Angharad

Angharad

Cheesy TG story update

As a hairdresser, Anistasia is FREAKING AWESOME. I think I look better in my new license photo than in any other picture ever taken of me (so far). All thanks to the skills and advice of our very own A.A. The word "multitalented" comes to mind for some reason. ;)

The folks at the Department of Licensing office were totally professional and accommodating, not to mention discreet, and the gentleman taking the photo even seemed genuinely happy for me. I now have an 'F' on my driver license, to go with the one on my health insurance card (which they changed without me even specifically asking them to, when I faxed them a copy of my court order for a name change). So I am now legally (at least to the state of Washington) and medically female. The Federal government and my birth state of Illinois see it differently, for now, but they'll come around eventually. ;)

After the DOL, I met (for the first time) with my divorce lawyer, and even though he was taken by surprise by me being TS, and admitted his total ignorance of the subject, that dreaded meeting went well, too.

And I got called back in for a second (and final) round of interviews, scheduled for next Wednesday. All in all, it's been another very good day for me.

Do I sound a bit giddy, maybe? I certainly feel that way.

Congratulations!

I'm glad things are coming together. It's really good to hear some good news.

So, what kind of a job are you going for? Enquiring geeks want to know ;-) What kind of computer skill is so rare that there are only five people in the area that have it? COBOL? LOL Forth? Ada? LISP?

My wife and I both interviewed at a medical software company -- she as a nurse (trainer, QA, or whatever,) and me as a programmer. I never thought the dabbling that I did with HTML and JavaScript would come in handy -- but the VP of development likes my nice, neatly laid out (anal-retentive) code.

The back end is done on an IBM AS-400 in RPG, and the front end is all browser-based. The next version will be in Java (and a bunch of other stuff,) so I have to be really cliche' and learn Java.

Congratulations again. I wish you well on your next interview. Maybe we can compare notes next week.

By the way, the VP has a portrait of Tux hanging on his wall. I'll give you one guess as to what his favorite operating system is. heh.

Ray Drouillard

Thanks!

It's really good to have some good news to tell! :)

As for the job qualifications, it's not so much one particular thing that's rare, as the combination of skills they're looking for and the extent of my experience. It's a project to make a Macintosh version of some code that currently runs in Windows (whether it's a port or a re-write is yet to be decided, but they want to end up with one cross-platform codebase eventually). Having that kind of expertise in general is fairly uncommon hereabouts, being in Microsquish's backyard, though maybe not exactly rare. Such folks may well be a dime a dozen in Silicon Valley, but not here. Having as much experience at it as I do, and having actual experience dealing with most of the specific issues they foresee as being of particular concern for this project, is what narrows it down to more or less the five of us.

Java developers seem to be in pretty high demand (hence being clichéd, I guess). So it's probably a good career move for you.

Yay for You!

Wow! Holy smoke, Batman! What a great story. But you deserve the happy ending. Hope your next post will confirm what we all expect -- that you bagged the job. Hugs, Daphne

Daphne

If you think it's bad...

...when the latest installment of your favorite story ends with a nail-biting cliffhanger, you should try having it happen to you in real life.

I had my second round of interviews this past Wednesday. It went well, I thought. I left feeling reasonably confident I would be getting an offer shortly. Thursday morning, my HR contact at the company emailed me to say it was still looking positive, mostly she just needed to get final approval, which she was unable to get that day due to a board meeting. She expected to have the final outcome today, and would get in touch with me to let me know as soon as she did.

Apparently that didn't happen, because she didn't ever get in touch with me today. So now I get to fret about it all weekend.

Argh.

At least she didn't contact me to say they decided against hiring me. Look on the bright side, I suppose.

Speaking of which, before the interview, when I showed my new driver license to my girl friend who had opened her closet to me for the first interview (and repeated the favor this time around), she exclaimed, "Oh my god, that is an awesome picture of you! No one ever looks that good in those!" Then she looked at me with a little scowl and said, "Bitch!" Yes, I put this in the "plus" column for the week. She meant it as a term of endearment, I think. At least that's how I'm going to take it. ;)

Commiserations

From one hopeful sufferer to another, you have my sympathies.

We (my wife and I) were supposed to be called some time this past week to see if we would both be hired by a software company -- which really looks like a nice place to work. Apparently, they were too busy to get around to it.

I have the feeling that we're going to have to hit the ground running when (if) we start working there.

The suspense is killing me! It's as bad as a real life Angharad story, ;-p

Ray