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LGBT career?

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by fern, Jun 2, 2015.

  1. fern

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    I am not very happy with my current job and have been looking into not only changing companies but changing career path as a whole to something that i'm actually interested/passionate/excited about. There's a few things that come up in this list, however LGBT counceling/research/rights is always top of my list.

    Does anyone have a career involving this? If so what do you do on a daily basis, what background might I need, and do you have any companies you'd recommend researching?

    I wouldn't be able to be a councelor as I don't have a degree in this, but if some other small degree would help get involved in some way I would consider going to night school part time for a year or so to get into a field that I'm passionate about.
     
  2. fern

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    no comments to this? some people in here must have a career in counseling or research...no?
     
  3. Austin

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    I'm not sure. You may be able to work for some nonprofit. A lot is volunteer but I'm sure there are some paid positions. A degree in something related to LGBT would probably help -- any degree for that matter is supposedly helpful for jobs. Otherwise, I think you need a degree for counseling (as you know) and probably a degree for (academic) research. I don't know much about this but since nobody responded... That's my input!
     
  4. PhoenixOfAshes

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    I'm only in high school right now, but my entire high school career is being based around becoming a counselor for an LGBT non-profit organization. After a few years of volunteer experience and other qualifications, you can actually make a living off of working in non-profit. It's a growing industry (At least where I'm from) and you can make a fair amount of money depending on your position.

    Maybe not what you're looking for, but just saying that it's out there! I hope you find what you're looking for! Also sorry for basically repeating what Austin said; their post didn't load until I'd already clicked the post button.
     
  5. EnviroLady

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    Best place to would be to contact a company or organisation that deals with gay rights in your country and they can probably tell you what sort of jobs there are. Is it necessary you are only dealing with gay people when counselling as you could be a counsellor who deals with a range of issues including being gay, this opens up your employment prospects further. I'm not sure on NZ sites but I just googled for Australia and found a health conference which would be a great way to meet organisations and ask about working in them. Just because you are gay does not mean you have to limit your career to only associating with gay people. I think a fantastic role would be counselling as it enablers you to listen to people and help them to come up with solutions, I know if I wanted to attend counselling I might not attend a gay friendly one due to stigma of people seeing me at the place and would prefer to go to a general counselling place due to not being "out". Good luck with the job hunting and finding.
     
  6. armydude

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    Why would you want an "lgbt career"? I don't understand the appeal of having every aspect of your life revolve around being gay. Don't define yourself by that. Just get a job doing something you like.
     
  7. BryanM

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    Because people are interested in LGBTQ issues? A lot of people are interested in activism and will be community activists for the LGBTQ community. Some people are interested in helping others, and will become social workers, psychologists, and therapists at LGBTQ resource centers. It doesn't define them, and I find it the same way certain people want to be lawyers but only do a certain branch of law, or someone who goes into the military and then becomes a Navy SEAL. If people are interested in jobs that help the LGBTQ community, all power to them. In fact, if I go into politics it's going to be a priority of mine to help find aid for LGBTQ homeless youth (LGBTQ people make up about 5% of the population but almost half of all homeless youth. There's definitely a need for LGBTQ shelters.).
     
  8. armydude

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    Do NOT get me started on Navy Seals....
     
  9. BryanM

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    You sort of missed the point of what I was trying to say. What I was trying to say was that many people will go into a career field and will find a certain niche that they fit in and works for them. There's nothing wrong with that.
     
  10. fern

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    just like BryanM said, i'm not trying to define my whole life around "being gay"...it's just that, like I mentioned in the first post, LGBT rights/research is something I'm personally very interested in. just like your last sentence suggests....i'm just trying to get a job doing something i like. I'm currently in a field that pays very well and i worked hard to get two degrees in...but i'm realizing it's just not something i enjoy at all...so i'm trying to brainstorm careers that i think i would actually enjoy, and this is just one of the things i was thinking of...
     
  11. armydude

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    No I didn't miss the point, I just disagree with you so I made a joke instead of arguing. No offense but at 18 years old you don't really have many lessons to teach me about having a career, bro.

    The OP's response to my post made more sense than the headline, which was what I responding to. "LGBT" career. We have a big problem nowadays with people trying to be "activists" for a certain group and then winding up with a narrowed worldview as a result. Black civil rights leaders like Al Sharpton would be a high profile example of succumbing to that attitude... only focusing on the well-being of one demographic and twisting the realities of a diverse society. But obviously the same kind of attitudes affect everyday folks wherever you go.

    Anyways my point was that you're losing out on exposure to different people if you limit yourself to working with one type of people... especially if it's a group you already belong to. That being said, I don't think the OP was planning on doing that as much as I thought based on the original title.

    Whatever you choose to do OP, iI sincerely wish ya the best of luck as it's none of my business after all! (!)