Why is it that all of the high paying jobs seem to be positions that men are in?
You rarely hear of a female CFO. You rarely hear of a female VP of Finance. You rarely hear of a female CEO.
Yet there are plenty of female executive assistants. As well as female receptionists. And I can’t recall ever working in an office where a male filled those two positions.
Is there gender discrimination when it comes to the workplace? And if so, can it be overcome with experience and education?
I think that my little resume experiment answers the question quite nicely. When I, as a potential candidate, appeared to be female I received only a few calls in regards to employment. And when I appeared to be male it was if my phone would not stop ringing.
So yes, there is still gender discrimination in the workplace. And no, a fancy pants degree and a resume chock-full of relevant experience is not enough to overcome the handicap of being female in a male’s world.
I changed my resume back to the real version of me and renewed my job hunting efforts. I only got interviewed for a few positions though. And two months later I finally got a job that required an MBA.
So, what have I learned? Well, when it comes to employers, more importance seems to be put on gender instead of education. In fact, the position that I am in now previously had a guy in it that did not have an MBA. He transferred to another office. Since him there have been two other women and one guy that have had this position. The women we both fired and the guy left on his own. They often talk around here about how they wish the two guys were still around.
The funny thing is that I have discovered numerous errors in the work that they have done.
One day I got a phone call from a recruiter anxiously asking to speak with ‘Shawn.’ The call was for a staff accountant position that I had applied for. My qualifications were perfect for this position. And it was at a pretty prestigious teaching hospital. Supposedly it is extremely difficult to get on at this place.
Well, you could hear the excitement drop in the recruiter’s voice when she realized that ‘Shawn’ was not a male. Needless to say, I did not get that position. In fact, despite all of the calls that ‘Shawn’ got it did me no good. You see, gender bias extends beyond paper.
I had a sneaking suspicion that if I was male that I would have already found a job that required an MBA. So, I re-tooled my resume. I took my name and dropped the last “a” so that I appeared to be male, at least on paper.
I began sending out resumes to all of the places that had never called me back when I had applied previously. It was not too long before my suspicions were confirmed.
The male version of me was pretty popular with recruiters and hiring managers everywhere. It was almost as if I could not get them to stop leaving me messages at home.
I was at that $15 an hour job for six months. I was applying for other jobs pretty much the entire time. While at the $15 an hour job I actually applied for a promotion there that I did not get.
When the $15 an hour job ended I was unemployed. I had spent six months working at a job that was not paying me what I was worth and I still was no closer to a job worthy of my degree.
I wondered if my gender was preventing me from getting those jobs that I desired. I decided to find out.
While at my $15 an hour job I went on several interviews for positions that required an MBA. When asked if I was currently working I honestly replied that I was. In retrospect that hurt me. It seems that I was not getting jobs because I was already employed.
I remember one job interview vividly. It was at a temporary staffing agency and the open position that I had applied to was for a Financial Analyst. According to the job description I was more than qualified for the position.
The interview seemed to be going pretty well. That is until the guy that was interviewing me told me that sometimes you needed to start off in the mailroom and that was his suggestion for me.
I left there disgusted.
At first I was selectively sending out my resume. I thought that with my credentials that I could be picky about the job that I took. After no results from that I began sending out my resume to all jobs that required an MBA. Even after that I was still not seeing any results.
So, I took a $15 an hour job temporarily. I didn’t tell them that I had an MBA though. I didn’t want to be told I was overqualified for the position as I needed the income. Besides, I did not expect to be there long. I continued to send out resumes and go on interviews while at this job.
Even though I completed my MBA in December of 2006, I did not start looking for a new job right away. I was moving out of state within a month and decided it was best for me to stay in my $15 an hour job until moving.
My plan was to look for a higher paying job that required an MBA upon settling in my new home. I had previously looked at the job situation in the city that I was moving to and had seen plenty of jobs that I would be qualified for. I assumed that once I started sending out resumes that I would have no problem getting a new job with more pay and maybe even a fancy title.
Being overly confident, I took my time settling into my new place. Why? Because I was certain a hot commodity like me would not be on the job market for long.
In December 2006 I finished up my studies for my MBA.
I had read that the average starting salary for an MBA is around $75,000, so I was pretty stoked about making that kind of money. You see, at the time I was making $15 and hour so that kind of pay increase was very appealing.
I knew that by having an MBA as a woman that I would be a bit of a minority. However, I did not think it would matter too much. In fact, I thought that the importance of an MBA would overshadow the whole gender issues and possibly even the pay gap between men and women.
For a 28 year old (at the time), I was sure naïve.
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