How coming out in university compares to coming out in the workplace

Chiara from Rolls Royce shares her experiences of navigating her LGBTQ+ identity during university and into her professional career, reflecting on the challenges she faced and the support received along the way.

Please introduce yourself, the name of your organization and the university you attended.

I’m Chiara, I am an Engineering & Technology graduate at Rolls-Royce, a role that I came into after I graduated from the University of Warwick.

When in university, were you out to your university friends and/or your teachers? If yes, how important was that for you?

I have been out all through university with my friends, and only certain lecturers (mainly due to a lack of interaction with most of them). This has been invaluable to me feeling at ease in my environment and I believe that I would not have had as good a university experience had I not been able to be myself in this time period.

Do you feel that your university prepares you for what is to come as a future professional and a member of the LGBTQ+ community?

Thanks to the numerous industry partners that the university had and the other resources available, I feel that university has prepared me to integrate the professional world. From an LGBTQ+ perspective specifically, I do not think that there was anything in particular at my university that prepared me for navigating being queer in a professional environment.

Are you out in your new job? If yes, was that the case from the start?

On the graduate scheme that I am on, we get to change roles and teams every couple of months. As such, I have come out to various colleagues in certain teams, but this is not something that I do systematically. This may be linked to the level of comfort that I feel within the team, as well as simply whether there are any opportunities that come up in conversation to come out in a “natural” way rather than making an announcement (which is the way that I personally prefer to do it).

How did you first come out at work and to who?

The first time that I came out to someone at work was a fellow graduate. This was in the context of a social setting at the beginning of the scheme when we were getting to know each other. Coming out to a colleague around my age range in a less professional setting than the office made it less intimidating and easier to subsequently come out to other colleagues afterwards.

In your opinion, how connected is coming out while in university to being out in the workplace?

In some ways coming out at university and in the workplace, but in others it is completely different. Being out at university (usually to friends made along the way or fellow students) is a great way to become comfortable with coming out and getting used to it, since coming out is a repetitive activity. In an environment such as a university, most people are open minded, so it helped me with boosting my confidence and allowing myself to be myself. In a professional setting, I find it harder to naturally assume that people are open minded - although in my experience so far they always have been.

At work there is an additional dynamic that can sometimes make it challenging to navigate the line between private life and professionalism, and I’m not quite sure when to open up about my queer identity. Coming out while in university has definitely helped me to explore different ways of coming out to someone, determining from this how I prefer to do it, and feeling comfortable while doing it - all of these elements have helped me to come out in the workplace at various points.

Before applying for a job, do you check their diversity and inclusion policies?

Before applying to this job, I did not do an in depth research into the diversity and inclusion policies of the company. However, I did some rapid due diligence checks on their website and found that their values placed a high importance on D&I, as well as the fact that they have an LGBTQ+ network. These elements reassured me in my application.

Are there any LGBTQ+ networks within your organization? If yes, are you an active member?

Yes, there is an LGBTQ+ inclusion network at Rolls-Royce, of which I am an active member, as co-site lead for one of the branches.

From your experience so far, do you have any advice to share with students before they go into the workplace?

Make sure that you have checked that the company that you are going to work for values acceptance and promotes belonging, for all the diversity of employees that it may have. One thing that helped me a lot was to find other LGBTQ+ colleagues. Speaking to them can not only allow you to increase your internal network and make professional connections that you might have not had otherwise, but also it is great to be able to have a chat with people who understand what it’s like to be queer in the workspace – both from an inclusion and psychological safety perspective.