At 56 years old, I’ve lived a life filled with work, discipline, and growth. I’m a military veteran with a strong resume, an extensive skill set, and over three decades of professional experience. But recently, I found myself staring down a harsh new reality: I might be aging out of the workforce, especially as a transgender woman.
In the last month, I’ve submitted nearly 100 job applications. I’ve cast my net wide, targeting roles I’m not only qualified for but often overqualified for. Roles where I meet or exceed every listed requirement. Roles where my background should make me a competitive candidate. I’ve reached out to executive recruiters, updated every job board profile, and customized every cover letter.
And yet, silence.
Of the nearly 50 responses I’ve received, the overwhelming majority have been automated. Thank you for your interest, but we’ve decided to move forward with other candidates. No feedback. No follow-up. Just quiet, clinical rejection.
It’s enough to make you question not just your resume but your worth.
The Hidden Bias of “Overqualified”
Let’s be blunt: “overqualified” is often a euphemism. For “you’re too old,” or worse, “you make us uncomfortable.” It’s rarely about the qualifications themselves. It’s about assumptions. That you’re set in your ways. That you’ll want too much money. That you won’t mesh with a younger team. That you might retire soon. That your presence will “disrupt” the culture, especially if your trans identity is visible or discoverable.
When you’re a transgender woman over 50, those assumptions multiply. The tech world loves to praise diversity in theory but quietly excludes the people who don’t fit the trendy mold. Corporations build DEI task forces, then ghost resumes from older trans candidates. Hiring managers are trained to spot potential but not to recognize the wisdom and resilience of those who’ve already been through fire.
You start to feel like your best years were spent making companies better, only to be discarded once you’re no longer seen as “up-and-coming.”
The Resume Gap: More Than Just Time
For many transgender people, especially those who transitioned later in life, resumes carry gaps that aren’t just about dates. They carry identity shifts, name changes, and career pivots. The job history may be strong, but explaining your journey becomes a minefield.
Do you disclose your transition to avoid confusion in background checks and references? Do you leave it out and hope you won’t be misgendered or outed in interviews? Either choice can backfire.
And if you’re applying at 50, 55, or 60, those gaps take on new meaning. You’re not just explaining a career move; you’re often defending your very existence in the workforce.
A Double Bind: Agism Meets Transphobia
Agism is real. So is anti-trans bias. Together, they create a double bind.
Studies have long shown that older workers, especially women, face significant hurdles in hiring. Add in a marginalized gender identity, and suddenly the job market becomes a hostile place.
Transgender job seekers are already more likely to be unemployed or underemployed. According to the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey, trans individuals face unemployment rates nearly three times the national average. That number skyrockets for trans people of color and older trans individuals.
Even when we’re skilled, experienced, and capable, we’re often perceived as a “risk.” A liability. An HR nightmare. Not because of anything we’ve done, but because of who we are and how others see us.
RELATED: The Transgender Job Application Dilemma: To Disclose or Not?
What Job Searching Feels Like at 56
It’s hard to describe what it feels like to send out resume after resume and hear nothing back. You start to doubt everything: your skills, your presentation, your choices, and your appearance. You question whether transitioning cost you your future, even if you know in your heart that being true to yourself was never the wrong decision.
You tailor your resume again. You rewrite your LinkedIn summary again. You wonder if the problem is the font, or the profile headshot, or the software you’re using to export your PDF.
But deep down, you suspect the truth is less technical and more personal.
You wonder if someone looked at your name, your graduation date, and your profile photo and quietly closed the window.
A Message to HR Professionals and Hiring Managers
If you’re reading this as a recruiter or HR professional, this next part is for you.
You probably think you’re being fair. You probably believe your company doesn’t discriminate. You might even pride yourself on your inclusivity policies and rainbow-branded marketing during Pride Month.
But ask yourself:
- Do you actually read the resumes from candidates over 50?
- Do you make assumptions based on dates, photos, or perceived identity?
- Do your hiring systems allow room for people whose careers don’t follow a traditional arc?
- Do you assume a trans candidate will be “too political” for your team?
- Do you screen out people with extensive experience in favor of someone you can “mold”?
Age bias doesn’t always look like overt discrimination. Often, it looks like silence. Like ghosting. Like an inbox full of rejections from people you never even spoke to.
If you want to be truly inclusive, you need to look at all of the ways bias shows up. That includes agism. That includes anti-trans assumptions. And it especially includes the intersection of the two.
The Emotional Toll
The hardest part isn’t the rejections. It’s the invisibility.
It’s the feeling that after a life of work; of showing up, learning, growing, and adapting, you’ve become unhireable. Not because you can’t do the job, but because the world has decided it no longer wants to see you.
It’s demoralizing. It’s isolating. And for many transgender individuals, especially those without family support or financial safety nets, it’s dangerous.
Stable employment means housing. Healthcare. Access to community. It’s not just about pride, it’s about survival.
When older transgender people can’t get hired, the system is telling us we’re disposable. That we had value only when we were useful to someone else’s narrative and not when we needed stability ourselves.
What Can Be Done?
For Employers:
- Audit Your Hiring Practices: Use diverse hiring panels. Blind resume reviews. Interview scorecards that minimize bias. Don’t just talk about inclusion; design for it.
- Value Experience: Older employees bring depth, insight, and resilience. They’re not just “overqualified”; they’re ready on day one.
- Support Transgender Candidates: Normalize name changes and gender marker updates. Train recruiters to avoid assumptions and ask thoughtful, inclusive questions.
- Rethink Cultural Fit: Too often, “fit” becomes a shield for sameness. Diverse teams challenge comfort zones, and that’s a good thing.
- Stop Filtering by Age: If your applicant tracking software deprioritizes resumes based on graduation year or work history, you’re cutting out valuable talent before they get a chance.
For Fellow Trans Job Seekers Over 50:
- You Are Not Alone: This experience isn’t a reflection of your worth. The system is flawed, not you.
- Consider Functional Resumes: Focus on skills and accomplishments over chronological order to shift attention to your strengths.
- Leverage Community Networks: Reach out to trans-friendly organizations, queer professional groups, and even local LGBTQ+ centers for job leads and connections.
- Stay Visible: As exhausting as it is, your presence matters. The more we show up, the harder it becomes for society to ignore us.
- Talk About It: Silence feeds stigma. Sharing our stories helps shift the narrative, even if it doesn’t solve everything right away.
Hope in a Broken System
If you’re an older trans person reading this and feeling discouraged, please know: you’re not broken. The system is.
And if you’re a hiring manager or recruiter who just realized how many voices you may be ignoring, it’s not too late to change that. Start asking better questions. Start looking at candidates with fresh eyes. Start using your power to open doors, not just preserve the status quo.
Because when you shut out older transgender workers, you’re not just denying someone a paycheck, you’re denying them dignity.
And dignity is not something anyone should have to earn over and over again just to be seen.
The Bottom Line
Aging out isn’t just a number; it’s a narrative. One that tells older trans people we’re past our prime, past our usefulness, past being visible.
But here’s the truth: we’ve survived too much to disappear now. We’ve built skills. We’ve adapted. We’ve endured.
What we need now isn’t just a job. We need a world that sees us, not as outdated relics or risky hires, but as the powerful, capable, deeply human professionals we are.
So if you’re holding a resume from someone over 50, especially someone trans, don’t click away. Read it.
You might be looking at the best hire you never expected.
TransVitae.com is dedicated to amplifying the voices of transgender individuals and creating space for conversations that matter. If you are a hiring manager or HR professional who wants to learn how to make your workplace more trans-inclusive, we invite you to explore our upcoming guides and diversity training resources.
