At Harvard specifically, Timothy P. McCarthy, the faculty advisor to both HUBBS and QSA, said businesses more recently have been not just tolerant, but embracing of BGLTQ employees.
“Among my graduate students there has been particularly targeted recruitment because these companies understand that these students are important to their institutions,” McCarthy said.
Eddins added that HUBBS has also been received well by corporations.
“These companies really care about us and they really care about representing us, and also because they’re serving more and more diverse clients,” Eddins said.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the investment banking arm, is one of HUBBS’ sponsors. A spokesperson for the bank, Ferris Morrison, wrote in an email that its campus recruiting efforts are a “vital pipeline of talent for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.”
“Because diversity is such an important part of our culture, we partner with a variety of organizations like the Harvard Undergraduate BGLTQ Business Society as a way to support and encourage diverse candidates who might be considering careers in our exciting industry,” Morrison added.
Marissa L. Long, the assistant director of the On-Campus Interview Program and employer relations at the Office of Career Services, said that companies that recruit at Harvard often reach out to affinity groups on campus in an effort to attract a “diverse group of applicants.” However, she added that there is still some work to do, such as with international organizations.
Some students say they face difficulties being open about their identities when they arrive at an internship or workplace. Albert A. Murzakhanov ’16, a former HUBBS co-president who interned last summer at T.D. Bank, said that while the process of applying to and interviewing for jobs in the business sector, particularly in larger firms, has not been an issue, it can be “very hard” to come out to colleagues once assuming a new position.
“As a summer intern, I felt it was very hard to be out,” Murzakhanov said, adding that many large firms are building internal support networks. Carl E. Rogers ’16, who worked for Ogilvy & Mather, an advertising and public relations firm, in Beijing last year, similarly said he was a “bit careful” about to whom he came out in China.
Fail acknowledged that even the most BGLTQ-friendly companies still have a “good deal” of work to do in making undergraduate students aware that they are welcome in the industry in time to affect their recruiting and career choices. He suggested that BGLTQ students “leverage their common identity to seek out, meet, and learn from older, more experienced LGBT people in the industries they’re most interested in.”
“Things have gotten better, but being L, G, B, or T still means being different. And to succeed in today’s hypercompetitive world, LGBT students need to know how to make the most of that difference,” Fail wrote.
—Staff writer Kristina D. Lorch can be reached at kristina.lorch@thecrimson.com.