Lavender Road to Success: The Career Guide for the Gay Community by Kirk Snyder

Synopsis

Based on a groundbreaking two-year study of more than 300 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender alumni from the University of Southern California (USC), LAVENDER ROAD TO SUCCESS is the first career guide written specifically for the gay community. Identifying how the right career decisions can level the workplace playing field, author Kirk Snyder presents a personal and comprehensive look into the career paths of gay professionals, giving voice to those who have experienced both success and failure as a direct result of their career decisions.

Snyder reveals a wide variety of issues facing gay professionals, such as what it means to be gay in the workplace, why you will make more money when you are out of the closet at work, how defining your personal identity as a member of the gay community will help you achieve success, and how to find a perfect match between you and your employer. Through extensive research and practical application, Snyder presents all the necessary knowledge, resources, and tools you need to build a successful and enduring career, including statistics about white-collar workplace discrimination, the impact of gay-friendly bosses and colleagues, and how to make the most of any workplace environment.

Cynthia Winfield - VOYA

Written specifically for a gay working audience, this guide is nonetheless highly accessible to all readers. Useful to those planning careers, entering the job market, or seeking career changes, Snyder's book provides a wealth of information and exercises designed to convince his reader that being oneself leads to personal happiness and fulfillment. Using a low-key approach, Snyder makes his pitch, documenting the experiences of forty-eight specific research subjects to support his argument. He addresses the high emotional toll of leading a double life, even for those with reason for remaining closeted, and includes stories of gay people whose quality of life changed upon coming out at work. Gays who are out about their sexual orientation, he asserts, "in diverse and welcoming [work] environments . . . earn 50 percent more than their peers who describe themselves as being 'totally closeted' ($91,500 versus $61,000)." His research covered a two-and-a-half-year period, allowing him the opportunity to watch his subjects experience changes in their own lives. Designed as a workbook for gay career planners and written by a passionate, motivational author, this book would be useful for anyone seeking self-fulfillment in their workplace. Advice about gauging the climate of any potential workplace for gay employees and an extensive resource list provide helpful guidance. A necessary volume for Gay/Straight Alliance libraries, this well-written text belongs beside Richard Nelson Bolles's classic job-seeker's reference, What Color is Your Parachute? (Ten Speed, 1971), on all public, high school, and college library shelves. VOYA CODES: 4Q 2P S A/YA (Better than most, marred only by occasionallapses; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult-marketed book recommended for Young Adults). 2003, Ten Speed Press, 194p.; Index. Further Reading., Trade paper. Ages 15 to Adult.