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Atheist Activism and Job Hunting
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Being an atheist activist and job hunting go together like oil and water.
Let’s face it, if you put something online you should be okay with your mother, your boss and any potential lovers coming across it. This also includes hiring managers and recruiters. They will search Google and Facebook for information about potential employees. For those of us that are activists for causes that might not be considered mainstream, problems can crop up. I am an atheist activist. I have protested against violations of church and state. I advocate for marriage equality and the rights of sex workers. I also happen to work in the nonprofit sector. Nonprofits are often started or run by religious people.
When you Google my name in quotes, a couple of things are instantly obvious: 1. I am a black woman and 2. I am an atheist. Both of these can be used against me in the hiring process. I have an anecdote regarding that later on.
My twitter account is the first link that comes up:
In one fell swoop, my life is laid out before anyone that happens upon my page. Most of these things could bias someone against me for hiring purposes. We’ve all seen the surveys rating trust of atheists at about the same level as rapists. Also the ones where people don’t feel comfortable voting for atheists. The PDF report that I linked to found that people are more likely to hire someone for a job that requires higher levels of trust if the applicants appear religious. Atheists, though, would be more likely, according to the study, to be hired for jobs that require a lower level of trust. Not cool.
The second link when you Google my name leads to the blog where I am a contributor and it describes me as, “an ex-Jehovah’s Witness with a focus on Black atheism, humanism, and sex-positive dialogue”.
The third link is to an article I was featured in “4 Hardworking Atheists You Will Love“.
Underneath these links there are several pictures of me: black and female.
Google goes on and on like that for pages. I’ve never had a hard time getting interviews and have never been between jobs for very long until recently. My husband and I want a change. He might be up for a job with a salary increase in North Carolina in April so I’ve started applying there. Also, in case that doesn’t happen, I’ve been applying other places, (warm places) like in Las Vegas, California, Arizona, etc. For the first time I can remember, I haven’t gotten any call backs. Of course, I have considered that I haven’t been a good fit for these positions or I’m not what they are looking for; but I have several years of nonprofit experience and I have a masters degree so I know at the very least I look good on paper.
My husband feels I have damned myself with my online presence. He believes I will have a very difficult time finding work outside of the atheist community and he might be right. This concerns me. Ideally, I would love a full-time paid job working to promote humanism or church/state separation. Unfortunately, those jobs are a dime a dozen and highly coveted. I’m a newbie in the atheist community and the people applying for and getting these jobs probably have a more established track record.
I started my current job about 3 months after I began my atheist activism. When I initially applied, I was told by a mutual friend of mine and the person in charge of hiring, that my Facebook page (which was semi-private at the time) showed “atheist” as my religion and she wouldn’t be granting me an interview because of this. (Keep in mind this is hearsay). I tend to believe it’s true because although the organization is not religious in nature, it was founded and is run by a pastor. I ran across a telling poll as I was doing a bit of research for this blog:
Happily most people wouldn’t care, but a solid 1/3 of the respondents stated that they would not hire a vocal atheist!
Fortunately, although I was initially refused an interview, I was highly qualified for the job and was eventually hired by this small nonprofit organization run by a black pastor. The difference between now and a year and a half ago is that my online presence regarding atheism has expanded significantly. I have been the Assistant Vice President of Outreach for the National Atheist Party, I was the State Director of Florida for American Atheists, I co-founded Secular Woman and currently work as the Director of Development & Marketing for Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB). I have written many blogs about my atheism and the atheist community. I’m speaking at several upcoming secular events including the keynote at a freethought conference in September. I am a very open atheist. I assume my current employers haven’t bothered to Google me.
As much as I want to be involved in the atheist community, especially helping to draw out closeted atheists, I need to work to help support our household. I know that in a few years, I’ll help FBB’s fund development get to the point where everyone will be paid full time wages and there will be a brick and mortar building and we can all focus completely on the mission to promote humanism, but until then, most of us have second jobs.
I see a lot of people, after working for one atheist organization go on to another one or they start blogging or picking up speaking gigs or write books to supplement their income. All of that is great, but that’s no guarantee. I blog, but I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have the finesse that *real* writers have and I’ll never make a substantia
l income from it. I do it because I enjoy it. I am writing a book, but it’s about being disowned and I don’t have aspirations to write any other books. I’ll speak when invited but I’m not the most charismatic person so that’s not an income I can count on either.
So I wonder, with so much of my life online and with the stigma still there for atheists.. am I hurting my chances for future employment? I am trained in the nonprofit arena and many nonprofits are Christian based. Do I have to choose between my activism and my paid work? Should I include my board positions and paid work within the atheist community on my resume?
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Bridget Gaudette is the Director of Development for Foundation Beyond Belief as well as an HIV Medical Case Manager. Bridget describes herself as an atheist, liberal, humanist, gamer, insomniac, bibliophile and sapiosexual. Bridget is also an ex-Jehovah's Witness. Blogs not endorsed by Foundation Beyond Belief.
Nice article. As an aside, your friend should also probably know how illegal it is to admit to not hiring someone because they’re an atheist, unless they’re smaller than 15 employees (then it may depend on state law). What a dangerous thing it is to hand something of legal consequence to an activist.
I ended up getting the job so it worked out, but I did bring the issue up to some people that had more resources to deal with this type of thing.
You could try moving to a more civilised country… there’s lots of choice!
I would do so gladly! Can you loan me a few hundred thousand dollars?
Does it cost that much to move to Canada? (Actually, I’m just assuming that Canada is unlike the U.S. in this respect — but it’s a reasonable assumption.)
In fact, though it’s easier for a U.S. citizen, it’s true that changing country for moral reasons is hard. You can say with a good deal of truth that you’re not responsible for your government’s actions, unless you’ve chosen as an adult to live under that government. Finding a country whose government has completely clean hands is pretty difficult. I should check Liechtenstein and Saint Kitts and Nevis — they seem likely candidates.
We’d have to pay off our house in order to move and people aren’t buying down here in Florida. I’d love to move to Australia though. I’m not too keen on cold weather.
Yes, not a good time to be selling a house in most places — though, on the plus side, they’d probably be cheaper where you were moving to. Good time to move to Greece… Australia has a bit too much of a reputation for racist policies for my liking, to be honest. And I have the opposite problem to you: I don’t take heat well. New Zealand’s always sounded nice…
Looking at the links that come up when I google my name, I think I can live with my “Image”. I’m involved on both professional and personal forums. I try not to be a jerk. I believe in healthy civil debate with those who disagree with me but enjoy debating (something most people on the internet unfortunately seem incapable of.) If an employer wants to reject me for the interests I have outside of work, they’re probably not someone I want to work for. I’m able to separate my work activities from my non-work activities. An employer who is unable to distinguish the two says more about who they are than who I am.
“If an employer wants to reject me for the interests I have outside of work, they’re probably not someone I want to work for.” In a perfect world I could have lots of options on employers…
I guess it’s a double-edged sword, this freedom to be yourself and speak your mind. It is for this and other reasons that I still use a pseudonym when I post anything and anywhere atheism-related. But I admire, envy, and am very grateful to those of you who are out. You are paving the way for the rest of us.
Definitely bittersweet. I’ve made a promise to myself to live honestly and openly though.
Nice one, Bridget and congratulations on freethoughtify.com. If I was an employer I’d rather take on a mouthy atheist than a mouthy Christian or, hell’s bells, an mouthy Islamist. Christians are hard work with their “I need to wear a cross round my neck to show what a good believer I am” or a dead fish or whatever the latest Christian fashion is. At least atheists don’t come with all that religion baggage. Trouble is, I’m not an employer and I’m another mouthy atheist so I’d probably have a hard time getting a job in France, perhaps the most secular of nations.
Thanks Roger! I’m a friendly atheist
Those are some great questions. I too am an extremely vocal atheist looking for a job. So I share your concerns. It’s a little different for me because I don’t use my legal first name except when I have to. So when employers Google my legal name, they might not actually find me. But it depends on how hard they search. It is always a concern though.
Your name isn’t Staks?!?!
The first thought I had was this. Considering the high level of distrust for humans, does being a vocal active human hurt chances of employment? Hell yes. Those who employ all too often want mindless drones who obey without question. Unless they’re really smart and effective leaders. Then they might appreciate what u can do for ‘em. I’ve observed that most people with opinions beyond the weather either must get into opinion type jobs or self-employ or else keep mouth (and mind) hushed. And I agree that working for ppl that are illogical and can’t tell the diff between work and non-work activities, or say can’t leave their own prejudices outside the hiring office, wouldnt be worth working for or with.