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Should I include my time as a treasurer for my university's GSA in a general resume?

Discussion in 'General Support and Advice' started by kibou97, Mar 19, 2018.

  1. kibou97

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    While creating a new resume today now that I have extra time and am on spring break (I know, I clearly party hard on my days off), I got to the section where I wanted to include extracurriculars/awards and thought about listing my time as a treasurer there. I know having any leadership position helps a lot on resumes but I didn't know whether it would do more harm than good to mention that I did this for a GSA.
     
  2. Destin

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    Yea, you earned the right to put it there so be proud of your accomplishment and show it off. GSA doesn't necessarily mean you're gay, there are straight people who join that too, so they really have no way of knowing whether you're gay or not just from that. They can't legally ask you if you're gay either, so you'll never have to clarify it for them.

    I know a white guy who is the President of the African tribal drum club at my university - people just like the clubs they like even if it doesn't seem like they are a traditional fit there, so employers probably don't scrutinize clubs very much.
     
    #2 Destin, Mar 19, 2018
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2018
  3. smurf

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    Two options:

    1) If you don't need the job that badly, then I would keep it in. It will show off your leadership abilities AND it will also help you weed out bad places to work/intern at. If its an internship, definitely keep it in.

    2) If you need a job and need it now, I would change the name of the club. You can name it something like "Volunteering to safe the World". They aren't going to check if its an actual club and it will work for you. I would only do this if you REALLY need the money.
     
  4. Chip

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    The only thing I'd say is... your profile says you're in Kentucky. Like it or not, that's a pretty deeply red state. So mentioning something that tags you as gay might disqualify you from getting interviews.

    Also, technically, in most states, "gay" or "lgbt" is not a protected class as far as employment discrimination. I believe Obama made it a protected class for Federal workers, but I just read that Trump either had, or was about to, repeal that. There are a few places (mostly local municipalities) where LGBT discrimination in employment is prohibited, so when seeking out jobs, one has to think about that.

    Most places won't discriminate these days against gay people in hiring or employment, but if you are in a deeply red, conservative, somewhat ignorant place, I think, as much as the leadership experience is valuable on a resume, I'd probably leave it off unless I knew that the employer you're applying to encourages and supports diversity in the workplace.
     
  5. SemiCharmedLife

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    I work as a recruiter in Kentucky. Unless you're applying somewhere that makes LGBT inclusion a core tenet of its focus I'd leave it off. Even if you end up getting hired in a city where employment discrimination is prohibited by local law and you can't get fired for coming out after you start working, but there's really nothing to stop a homophobic hiring manager or HR person from seeing that on your resume and deciding not to interview you.