Diversity recruiting in the closet???
So I'm a sophomore at a public semi-target and this year I realized that I'm bisexual. the good news is that means i qualify for diversity recruiting. The bad news is nobody knows except me. (and my closest friends back home).
My question is, will it look suspicious if i apply for sophomore diversity programs and i'm not "out"? How do they check if you're really LGBTQ+ and will they just assume that I'm faking it? And let's say I get a job through one of these programs, will everyone know that I'm "gay"?
I must say I've enjoyed my life as a straight man so far and I don't want this to affect my social life, at least while i'm still in college. Once I graduate I don't really care. I'm in a frat and i don't want my friends to view me differently but I also realized that pretty much the ONLY kids from my school that make it to BBs are women/diversity candidates. Do I really have to pick between my professional and social life? To anyone with experience with diversity programs, what they entail, and life after you get the offer, your insight is appreciated.
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I’m generally very lowkey about my sexual orientation and went though diversity recruiting.
In terms of the firm questioning your diversity status, no one ever asked me if I’m really gay and I don’t act gay at all. The only time LGBTQ came up was in my application essay. Even when I started working my sophomore summer, no one questioned how I got into the program except maybe one or two of my fellow interns.
I can empathize with you since I only came out to a few people in college and am still in the closet with my family, but leveraging being gay to get into banking especially from a non-target was well worth the potential reputational damage. Best of luck to you 🤞
Preciate the insight man. Did they mention it when you were interviewing for the program at all? like "how have you overcome stigma in the workplace" or some bs question like that?
They didn’t but I actually brought it up just to make sure they know I’m technically diverse since I don’t look it. You could even bring up the dilemma you have right now and craft it into a story about your struggles, just be careful with how you word it and don’t offend the more liberal leaning interviewers. My general advice is you can always apply on the DL and decide if you want to take the offer when the time comes. Once you start the job performance is everything, as long as ur not acting like some gay people no one would give a crap
I’m a banker and regularly interview people. I don’t think I’d ever ask a personal question like that. Many reasons: it’s irrelevant for work, it may make the candidate uncomfortable, can get misinterpreted and potentially get me into trouble, etc. Bankers just assume that HR did their work in terms of channeling diversity candidates into the various programs. Most likely bankers don’t know what is your diversity background (i.e. HR doesn’t tell us why you were included in the diversity program). A question that could be appropriate though in the context of a diversity program is something like “given that this is a diversity program, please tell me a situation from your life experience - can be academic, sports, whatever - in which having a diverse team positively impacted the results / having a non-diverse team negatively impacted the results”.
It should not matter. Any questions can’t be viewed as legitimate qualifiers because the challenges people face are so self evident. Just be true to yourself and you will be fine.
Bump
What a joke
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