transgender working and recruiting for IB

HR will love you and make sure that you get a return offer for sure. You are in the top decile in terms of candidate attractiveness nowadays, even if the emphasis on DEI has weakened a bit.  

Some weird hateful outbursts in the thread. I don’t necessarily agree with it but who the fuck cares, that’s not what you asked.


The answer is to disclose only to HR that you are transgender for context when you provide your background information. Maybe have some copies of your birth certificate/government issued name change documentation in case it’s requested.

You’re not obligated to tell anyone on your team, but I would ask HR about navigating bathrooms specifically. Just want to get ahead someone complaining about your bathroom of choice with official company policy should it be an issue.

The reality is, banks are just starting to have gay internal social networks, but still I haven’t seen any explicitly/flamboyantly gay people in the office - this is to say expect to keep it conservative in your appearance and information you choose to share. Early in your career you may think to share all your personal life details with your junior peers in effort to make friends, but even if you weren’t trans, I’d advise you to just keep your cards to yourself - not everyone deserve to know your non-work lifestyle. Severance is not too far from reality.

I think you are in relatively uncharted territory, so just good luck I guess. Most bankers are conservative so I genuinely hope you don’t get iced out socially if people find out you’re trans, but just know it may happen. Oh well, get your 2 years of experience and you’ll figure it out.

If it gets out I imagine you will be socially alienated but I’m sure that is the story of your life. It is very commendable that you have the balls (pun intended) to enter an industry with retards like the ones replying to this thread. I can’t imagine anyone genuinely giving you a hard time, though. Leverage the HR benefits if you are comfortable with it. It might get out, it might not, but at the end of the day if you’re chill and easy going you will be liked by 90% of your coworkers. Outside of the office they might look at you a bit weird but I get the sense you are aware of this and won’t let that get to you. I personally think you will be completely fine. Congrats on the BB offer. I can appreciate how this might be nerve wracking for you and wish you all the best

Not even the biggest supporter and I'm pretty neutral about a lot of this type of stuff but honestly pretty ridiculous and sad how people respond to posts like this. MS me all you want but this person went through the same process and clearly earned it. People gotta have more respect or at least the decency not to be a keyboard warrior and instead just move past the post if you don't approve. 

Honestly, the only thing successful people care about in this business is making money and if you’re efficient at what you do, pleasant to work with and a quick learner, you’ll do fine as a junior and if you are commercial and add value to your clients you’ll do fine as someone more senior. 

If it comes out, I won’t pretend you will not be a curiosity for a little while but that too will pass and successful people in the business are too busy to care about your personal life so please get your numbers right and turn that CIM in time, thank you.

Anyone commenting negatively is unlikely to be successful anyway because letting prejudices get in the way of business is bad business. 

Focus on being really excellent at your job. If you’re good at your job and easy to work with, everyone will love you. Likewise, if you suck everyone will hate you. 

Could not give less of a fuck whether someone is trans or not, just be good at your job and you’ll be accepted (hopefully) 

Congrats on the offer ! Do not listen to the horrendous comments here. Maybe inform HR for administrative matters but it should be fine.

Don't let people stop you. I would not disclose given you cant control the bias of others but other than that go for it 

Yea as others said HR at BBs will protect you but that's not the Q


If people find out they may treat you different that's the unfortunate truth. There's a variety of factors such as geography, firm, Group, etc that impact culture, that'll give you a varying response of "ok we don't care" to straight up harassment/discrimination - just like gender, race, etc


At the end of the day, work speaks for itself, if you're grinding and making your analysts life easier, they'll vouch for you and it'll quite people up.

As someone within the TGNC community, there are definitely issues you will face as you grow in this career, but i disagree with other commenters stating you need to change career paths. As for the background check, I would jump on a zoom with HR to explain that you haven’t changed the gender marker on your ID ahead of it occurring. Some general points on working in this industry as a transgender person (or really any other minority who people have strong opinions on), at the junior level:

• Learning the Job: Many of the skills that need to be developed for this job are taught informally, typically through more senior folks demonstrating best practices or through a senior willing to answer questions / help you when you’re struggling with a new concept. You will likely not have this benefit, as people will either not be willing to take time out of their very busy days to help you or will actively dislike you. For that reason, I would emphasize i) trying to get as much as possible out of the formal, standardized training programs, ii) scouring this and other sites for best practices for ASOs / analysts, iii) being proactive about teaching yourself (looking for / asking for precedents when asked to complete something new that you don’t know how to do, enrolling yourself in financial modeling courses outside of work or before it, etc.) and iv) ask detailed and good questions to your seniors to show that you have already taken the time to learn the basics and demonstrate interest in the subject.
• Be Careful with Culture: It’s difficult to know before joining a firm or group exactly what the culture will be like. I would recommend staying away from organizations that don’t have a formal HR team or representative (like smaller PE shops) or that have a track record of being extremely sweaty / difficult. While it could go well, it puts you into a situation where open discrimination could easily run rampant with very few off ramps for you besides leaving that firm.
• Social Isolation: You will not be able to openly discuss a key part of your life with people you spend the majority of your time with (unless you’re interested in slapping a target on your back for the transphobes in your org and inviting debates about the reality of your existence on the regular). On a day to day basis this will likely not impact you, as the job is a technical one where discussions center around business and the industry you cover, but it will have compounding effects as you get older. Prioritize going to trans nights or events in your area regularly to stay connected to your community and combat this. 

Besides all this, I will say that the best performers (firms or people) in this industry are laser focused on hiring skilled, hard workers. There will always be a place for them. I work in infrastructure and find my coworkers pleasant and very results-oriented. 

If someone is openly transphobic (purposefully and repeatedly misgendering you, harassing you in regards to bathrooms, constantly inquiring in a negative way about your trans experience, etc.) avoid them to the extent possible. They will typically not change their mind and will actively make your life more difficult (whether through constant harassment or more insidious ways, like asking extremely difficult things of you to “prove” your worth). 

Good luck!  

why u are a trans

You def don't pass lol.

Others have chimed in with helpful advice, specifically "Associate 2 in PE - LBOs" who said they're part of the TGNC community. I'd hope that you could actually connect with them in DMs as it would be beneficial to get more specific advice/they can help you navigate the experience. 

Keep remembering to disregard the haters. If you succeed in IB and people find out you're trans, they'll just complain to themselves that you're a "diversity hire" or something, which isn't different from how black people in the industry deal with similar nonsense. 

I just wanted to add that I think you're really badass. Not to "fetishize" your experience or anything but I think this is so god damn cool lol. People like you push the envelope and make the world a more interesting place to live in. 

The guy below is just giving you a refreshing dose of reality (again assuming this isn’t troll, which I doubt).

If you truly pass as female and never tell anyone, you might do fine as people will just assume you’re a semi-attractive girl. If word gets out though, I unfortunately agree - it’s just too conservative an industry for someone not to try and get you out / hurt you, solely because you’re trans. 

No experience to share but I’m an incoming summer analyst (cis white male) as well and would not treat you any differently or even think twice about it. I have other friends with offers who I also know would not think twice about it. Can’t speak for everyone but, I imagine a lot of people our age would be pretty supportive. 

Lot of 25 year old wanna-be rednecks on this thread seem like they’ve had a long day at work, maybe finish the Seamless and pack it up for the night

happy pride 🏳️‍🌈

contact HR, they're usually nice. look at your firm's lgbt resource group, try to connect with somebody in it. they're helpful in letting you know how much to "blend in". try to create some network in it, since they're usually close knit and would be willing to help you navigate a situation if needed (obviously don't bother them).

ignore the hate comments here. if consulting can have trans and non-binary managers and partners, i'm sure you'll be fine in IB. you might just have to deal with douchebags making comments like the ones here but it's unfortunately nothing new to our community.

as for your summer experience, i think you'll be fine if you're passing (if you're not, makeup is your best friend). try to connect with other summer analysts who're lgbt. other women who're from blue states/are non-religious should be fine to befriend too. i'm not trans, but i wouldn't tell people outside your firm's lgbt group you're trans immediately anyways. and even in the lgbt group events, people barely ask about your orientation/gender. you run the risk of attracting douchebags if you come out as trans to the non lgbt folks, and it's not necessary if you're passing tbh.

would not discuss any political topics regarding DEI and lgbt outside the lgbt group events.

some people on here have a hate boner for DEI because they called out once for using the f-slur in college and their snowflake ass couldn't handle it.

.

People in IB are prone to racist, sexist, and generally bigoted humor and hot takes and generally lack of professionalism. But no one will hold it against you as long as you are competent, easy to work with, have a good attitude (always be positive), responsive, and reliable. 

People’s self interest in having subordinates who make their lives easier trump any bias they have - it’s a transactional culture and job.

That said, if you aren’t able to perform at that level people will hate and criticize literally everything about you. However, this also applies to cis straight white men - if you are not easy to work with people will find a way to condemn and criticize every single aspect of your existence. It’s a toxic, transactional, and unprofessional culture for everyone lol

None of this should stop you though - you just need to survive for 2 years to get the experience. If you go to PE, people will dislike you more because you didn’t grow up as a country club wasp than because you’re trans. If banking is unprofessionalism, PE is old money classism.

They already know.

Although I have not personally worked with a trans person (either on the sell-side or buy-side), there was a guy at Credit Suisse who had Dwarfism that landed a great buy-side job at Harvard's endowment after his analyst years at CS (and HBS).

*Clearly not 1:1, but it help shows that - for all the lies people will tell on WSO - merit rules out in this industry (most of the time). The people who matter in this industry know this and will evaluate you based on your intelligence, grit, and execution. I use this as an example since I am sure that other CS analysts probably talked some shit behind his back - and you are likely to face the same thing. Roll with the punches and use that to create a chip on your shoulder to outwork those around you. 

Again, not 1:1, but I have asperger's and sometimes the way I verbally communicate (largely pace of my speech) I can tell people don't like. Luckily (and after a lot of DD), I found a firm where this is not an issue and I am evaluated based on the quality of my research. 

Delete

Delete

Honestly what a rabid bunch lurk in American finance and you can see them out on full display here. American society scares me. I’d suggest to move here to Europe eventually if you’d like to build your career in banking / finance - you will not face these issues here (or to a much lesser extent) because we are human here. All that should matter is how good you are at your job - no one should care about anything else.