The brand new third edition of Stonewall’s lesbian and gay recruitment guide features Stonewall Diversity Champions free of charge, showcasing them as some of the best employers for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people in Britain.  The guide is distributed to universities and FE colleges, careers services, student unions and LGB student groups throughout the UK.

STARTING OUT
An introduction from Ben Summerskill, Chief Executive of Stonewall

In 2005, Stonewall launched Starting Out, the first national guide for students and job-switchers who want to choose a gay-friendly employer. This third edition features over 250 employers – great news for discerning jobseekers. Every organisation featured is a member of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme, which means they’ve committed to improving their workplace for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff.

Since 2003, it’s been unlawful to discriminate in the workplace on grounds of sexual orientation. But the employers in this guide are going one step further – they’re actively looking for the best people and recognise that some of them happen to be gay. They understand that you want a working environment free from fear, free from discrimination and you want a job where you’ll truly be valued as an individual. Attracting and retaining the very best staff, regardless of background, is now a fundamental part of business strategy for British companies wanting to remain market leaders, and public sector organisations striving to provide world-class public services.

We’ve produced this guide with the support of Credit Suisse specifically to offer practical help and advice. It provides you with tips for your job search, how to handle ‘the gay thing’ at interview and employers’ 2007 rankings in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index, the only guide to the most gay-friendly employers in Britain. There’s also more information about our workplace programmes and your rights in the workplace.

This guide is designed to offer hundreds of thousands of lesbian, gay and bisexual job-seekers the power to take your skills and talents to an employer that will value you. With very best wishes in your job search and in your future career from all of us at Stonewall.

Visit Starting Out: Lesbian and Gay Recruitment Guide Download Page

You can download the publication in pdf format.

As our 324-page Recruitment Guide is a large electronic file, we've split it into the sections below for easier viewing and downloading. Each section's contents are listed to help you more quickly find a section or employer you may be looking for specifically – just click on the pink link.

Stonewall
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Tel: 020 7593 1850
Minicom: 020 7633 0759
Email: workplace@stonewall.org.uk
Web: www.stonewall.org.uk/workplace
Charity No. 1101255

Produced by April Guasp
Edited by Jenn Bonito
Designed and illustrated by Christian Tate

Q&A TIME

Sean Russell is currently Director of the Careers Service at the University of Warwick. As a careers adviser with years of experience advising and guiding graduates into their first jobs, he knows what you need to know when looking to land the perfect job. We asked him how LGB graduates should handle themselves when faced with the all-important interview.

Do you think lesbian and gay graduates looking for a job have particular issues?
This really depends on the individual. For example, there might be concerns about being ‘bounced’ into disclosure during an interview, so it’s important to sort out your approach beforehand; it’s all a matter of good preparation. On a positive side, employers are increasingly positioning themselves as gay-friendly.

Would you specifically research a company about their lesbian and gay record?
Certainly. The obvious place to start is Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index. I’d also check the organisation’s website, under headings like: ‘Diversity’, ‘Culture’ or ‘Values’. See if they’ve got a diversity team, an equal opportunities team and if there’s a lesbian and gay staff group. You can ask why they haven’t got one if they haven’t. ‘We don’t see our staff as separate groups,’ is often a mask for ‘We don’t care about these issues.’

How can you ensure you are confident and clear in your approach at interview?
Practice. You need to be really comfortable about what you’re saying and you need to get feedback from people about how you’re coming across. Book a mock interview with your university careers adviser. It’s helpful to rehearse the actual answers you’re going to give in a safe, non-judgemental setting.

Will they need to be up to speed on lesbian and gay issues?
There might be specialised careers advisers who have access to good case studies, examples of good practice and university careers service websites. But my advice is to discuss the kind of questions you’d like to practice before you start the mock interview. And make sure you write down the feedback they give you!

When you go into an interview, do you think your sexuality should be an issue?
It’s very much up to you. You’ve got this far – you have every reason to be confident and not defensive. I think your experience as a lesbian or gay man can be a positive advantage. You may feel that your sexuality has provided you with opportunities to demonstrate skills which an employer would value, such as chairing your LGBT students’ union society. And if you’ve referred to something like this in your original application, don’t be surprised if they ask you about it.

Would you personally bring up your sexuality?
Only if it was relevant. I believe that if you do, you need to have a reason which is clearly linked to the question being asked or the job you want.

What about comments like, ‘Are you married?’
Should you take that as an opportunity?
These days, it’s very unlikely that you’d be asked. However, my immediate response would be to ask how their question was relevant to the job, but in a light-hearted way. This is exactly the sort of response that is useful to practice in an interview. You can gently point out that they have made an assumption about you that’s not true but you don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. The ideal is for you to be confident about your sexuality and be able to point it out in a non-aggressive way and move on without dwelling on it. People will get very flustered, especially liberal people who are horrified that they’ve made these assumptions.

What if you do come up against a homophobic comment in an interview?
Keep calm. I wouldn’t necessarily judge the whole organisation by one comment made by a maverick on the panel. If you want to pursue the matter further, discuss your tactics with a careers adviser.

Do you think there is any reluctance to hire lesbians or gay men these days?
It depends on the organisation and the area you want to work in, although great progress has been made. Enlightened employers know that employees blossom where they can be themselves and the workforce reflect their clients’ diversity. There’s also the business case: employers can’t afford to lose out on bright and talented gay applicants and in the current buoyant graduate job market they can’t afford to miss out on the best people for the job.

Has the new anti-discrimination legislation changed anything when it comes to going for jobs?
Thanks largely to Stonewall, there’s a race on among good employers to be seen as very welcoming to lesbians and gay men. And they realise that lesbians and gay men are responding well to people who are no longer ignoring them.

Is it still about a nice suit (or equivalent) and shiny shoes at an interview?
Absolutely. You need to reduce the number of things that will irritate people about you. You want people to make a judgement on what you’re saying. You’ve got past the job application stage: now it’s about what you’re saying and body language. Don’t give them a reason to think you look scruffy but you don’t want to feel too uncomfortable because it’s all about how you come across. You need to look relaxed, give concise answers and be responsive to what they’re saying. If it looks like you haven’t given enough, you can ask if they need to know more.

They say everyone decides within two minutes of you coming in the room. How do you make those two minutes work?
For goodness sake, look interested from the outset and the easiest way to do this is: smile, shake hands firmly and maintain eye-contact. When you’re answering don’t just look at the person who’s asked the question, engage all of them.

What’s the worst thing you can do?
Turn up unprepared, so do your research. As for questions, there are three different types of interview: a ‘let’s see what they’re like’ unstructured interview. At the other end of the spectrum there’s the competency or skills-based interview where they ask for clear examples of skills they’re looking for. Then there’s the semi-structured interview, where they ask the same basic questions but let you elaborate if you go into an interesting area. You need to be prepared for any type of interview.

What about the classic ‘Have you got any questions for us?’
I would never say, ‘Not really’ but I would say, ‘I did have a few but I think we’ve covered them in the interview’. Certainly don’t come out with a whole load of questions and preferably don’t ask about the whole philosophy of the organisation: it shows you haven’t acknowledged that they’re working to a schedule and other candidates are waiting.

Should you try and make them laugh?
Only if that’s your style. You should try and be yourself. You have to be comfortable with who you are.

One last tip:
Keep going to interviews because it’s free interview practice, but make sure you reflect on the questions and your answers. Think of it like that and not as an on-going judgement of you.

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