Free Choice or a Decision Framed by Risks? Career Choices of Queer People in Azerbaijan

Author: Nil

When we say career choice, we usually understand it as choosing a profession guided by personal interests, skills, and ambitions — but this choice is not equally free for everyone. Sometimes people make decisions only after also considering what they cannot choose. For LGBTQI+ people, the process of entering the labor market and choosing a direction within it is often shaped by such limitations. That is, at the decision-making stage, along with thinking "what do I want," they also have to find the answer to the question, "which profession or workplace is safer for me?" As a result, their opportunities to pursue the fields they desire become limited.

These limitations are often not explicitly expressed; they more often emerge in the form of prejudices and pre-calculated risks. For example, the reason some work environments are perceived as more "safe" is that fewer questions about personal life are asked there, and visibility is lower. For this reason, many queer people turn toward directions like IT, freelancing, or creative fields, which are relatively more flexible and offer remote work opportunities. On the other hand, fields with stricter rules and more social surveillance are excluded from the outset.

"It's not possible for LGBTQ people to find the same comfort in every workplace."

The lack of objective information about the limitations Azerbaijani queer people face on this issue makes the problem even more invisible, which in turn makes finding a solution more difficult. To better understand the tendency, conversations conducted with queer people working in various fields show that career choices are often shaped not by personal interests but by the assessment of possible risks. It should be noted upfront that the names of interview participants have been changed to protect confidentiality.

Our first interviewee is Rana, a lesbian woman who works as a graphic designer and teaches design and office software classes at a course center. Rana states that when choosing this field, she considered both safety and her own interests. According to her, since she has always loved working with children and sharing her knowledge, working at the course center has given her both a comfortable environment and the opportunity to express herself freely. When speaking about the fields and professions she stayed away from when making her choice, she said that working in very conservative or strict corporate environments makes her uncomfortable because she doesn't consider such jobs suitable for herself. She thinks her identity also affects her career directions: "Yes, I clearly think my identity affects my decisions. It's not possible for LGBTQ people to find the same comfort in every workplace. That's why I've tried to choose places with more tolerant and open-minded teams. This has limited my choices to a certain extent. For me, a safe job is not just about financial stability. At the same time, it's also important to be able to work there without hiding myself, without being afraid of who I am. Having understanding management — I'm more comfortable because she's a woman my age — and an understanding team is as important to me as salary." Speaking about her experiences at previous workplaces, she notes that although she has not been directly discriminated against, there have been moments when she felt it indirectly. She says people are especially more judgmental in more formal and conservative environments. In cases where she avoided applying for some vacancies she wanted, not wanting to risk her psychological comfort was one of the main reasons.

"Before becoming a university applicant, my main desire was to become a construction engineer, but as I grew up, the isolation I faced at school for being different changed my mind."

Our other interviewee is Deniz, a software specialist. Deniz identifies as non-binary. Although they love the field they currently work in and think they are skilled at it, they state that their childhood dream was to become a construction engineer: "Before becoming a university applicant, my main desire was to become a construction engineer, but as I grew up, the isolation I faced at school for being different changed my mind. Even the classmates I was close to in the lower and middle grades no longer talked to me and were embarrassed to be seen with me. Even though in my heart I wanted construction engineering after becoming a university applicant, I changed my mind in the specialization selection and wrote down computer science." They think their identity directly affected their career direction because, considering that construction engineering is a male-dominated field in Azerbaijan, they feared that if they chose this specialization, they would not be accepted by future colleagues and the workers in the crew would not respect them as a person and a professional — so they chose computer science, which they considered safer: "I also love the field I currently work in and think I'm skilled at this job. Of course, there are risks in almost every work environment for people like us, so it's sometimes difficult to choose the ones that are the safest for us in proportion to our interests and skills. In the field I've chosen now, there are also more men. Even in my university years, although not as much as in school, I experienced discrimination from my groupmates, but the environment at university was more tolerable. Additionally, I think I made a wise decision because the specialization I studied is a field that includes many opportunities such as freelance and remote work." Deniz also states that their identity limits their choices when applying for jobs. According to them, although their skills and knowledge allow them to work in government agencies and large, established companies, they stay away from such places when applying for vacancies. "I have nearly 10 years of experience in the IT field, but I still avoid applying for jobs at well-known companies and institutions that offer high salaries — I think my identity would be more in the foreground than the work I would do there, and as a person with social anxiety, this scares me. I'm more comfortable where I currently work — I have a good relationship with the team, and I work from home except for two days a week. This creates conditions for me to feel comfortable while working and to make time for myself."

"I think they've already gotten used to our existence."

Another of our interviewees is Fira, who works as a customer representative at a call center and identifies as non-binary. Fira states that they work here because they couldn't find a job despite having higher education in a different field, but they think the reason for choosing a call center as an alternative is also directly related to their identity: "To be honest, I don't enjoy working at the call center. We take calls related to customer complaints for a large company, and sometimes these calls are non-stop. Sometimes the workload reaches such a level that we can't even take a break — worse, our managers restrict our breaks when call volume is high. Every day we talk to dozens of people and try to solve their problems; some behave very aggressively, some ask unethical questions. Despite this, I think I'll work here for a while longer because it's hard to find a suitable job. The positive side of this place is that there are queer friends like me on the team, and we haven't faced any open discrimination or rude treatment regarding our identity within the company. I think they've already gotten used to our existence. Another good side of this job is that we don't come face-to-face with customers. I'm sure that customers who are angry on the phone would dare to speak to me even more rudely in real life." When talking about her experiences at previous workplaces, Fira notes that she left previous workplaces shortly after starting due to both the injustice at workplaces and the intolerance shown to gender identity. She has faced discrimination not only while working but also in job interviews. According to her, when she was a student and wanted to help her mother cover educational expenses, employers at the waiter and salesperson jobs she wanted to get into behaved very prejudicially due to her identity and refused to work with her.

"When I grow up, I will protect women's rights and won't allow any man to hurt them."

Our final interviewee is Leyla, who works as a social worker. Her motivation in determining her career direction is different. She states that she chose this field to support women who have suffered harm: "When I was about 8-9 years old, we were watching the news on TV as a family. In one piece of news, neighbors were interviewed about a woman who had been killed by her husband. I remember that in that interview, no neighbor or relative man condemned this behavior — on the contrary, they were lamenting that he was only given 5 years in prison. The reason for this was simply that they thought the femicide the man committed 'for the sake of honor' was justified. This news made me very angry, and the worst and most frightening thing was that my father also held this view. Because he, like people who think this way, could one day kill me and my mother. Since then, I kept thinking about this news, and I could no longer look at the constant blaming and pressuring of women by those around me as normal (from a child's point of view) as I had before. From then on, I kept repeating the same words to myself and to the women around me — 'When I grow up, I will protect women's rights and won't allow any man to hurt them.' From that time on, my struggle had begun, even if small. Years passed, and I decided to become a feminist social worker. Then I continued working as a social worker on women's and queer rights for years, and in this way, we were able to change the life stories of many people for the better together with them." She thinks her struggle has influenced her career choice. She states that her struggle against the violence inflicted on herself, her mother, and other women has also shaped her identity. However, she says that she has also faced discrimination while engaged in the profession she loves: "While engaged in my professional activity, I have faced discrimination — especially my colleagues undervalued my contributions and the work I did because I didn't want to obey others. Regardless of what I achieved and how hard I worked, it felt like my value was being lost, because instead of just following the crowd, I chose to think for myself, and this was evaluated in the workplace not as a measure of skill, but as non-conformity."

These stories, different from one another, show that career choices are shaped not only by individual interests and skills but also by the pre-assessment of possible risks. A common point in the experiences of many interviewees is that before making a choice, they evaluate certain fields as "not suitable" for themselves. This is related more to expected treatment, environment, and sense of safety than to open prohibitions. Thus, the selection process becomes less about choosing among broad opportunities and more about deciding within a narrow framework to minimize potential risks.

At the same time, these experiences don't happen the same way for everyone. People with more access to resources, education, or remote work opportunities can turn toward relatively more flexible fields. On the other hand, for people deprived of these opportunities, choices become even more limited, and sometimes it becomes a necessity to stay in unsuitable work environments. In this regard, career choices are closely tied not only to identity but also to social and economic factors.

Thus, LGBTQI+ people's career choices are often shaped more by the answer to the question "where can I feel safe?" than by the question "what do I want to do?" This shows that many decisions that appear to be choices are actually made within pre-determined limitations. As long as these limitations are not removed, it remains difficult to speak of equal opportunities in the labor market.

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