Disfigured Chances In The Job Interview

Scarred for life. This expression takes on a more uncomfortable meaning when some people head out for job

Yes, when it comes to landing a job, your good looks do matter - and it is not just the stereotypical man seeking a pretty assistant. Research shows that when you look nice, you stand a better chance of getting hired.

So when you are on the hunt for a new position, best to look your best. If your resume did its job and landed you you an interview, it is now a matter of picking from the top 2 or top 3 or top 10 candidates.

And looks do matter.

Why? Because a hiring manager's gut instinct about a candidate and how well they will fit in to the organizational environment, how diligently they can be expected to perform their duties, how honest they will be - this gut instinct will guide him. And for better or for worse, we base our gut instincts in part based on looks.

“When someone is viewed as attractive, they are often assumed to have a number of positive social traits and greater intelligence,” says Carl Senior and Michael J.R. Butler, the two authors of a telling study published in the pages of the New York Academy of Sciences. “This is known as the ‘halo effect' and it has previously been shown to affect the outcome of job interviews.”

This study did not review every type of appearance. It looked specifically at facial disfigurements: “Discrimination Against Facially Stigmatized Applicants in Interviews: An Eye-Tracking and Face-to-Face Investigation”. The study found that people with a facial disfigurement stood a statistically lower chance of landing the job than people with no disfigurements. In other words, it was not about good looking people having an edge, as much as “disfigured” people being at a disadvantage.

What kind of facial disfigurement could impede your chances in a job interview?

Anything distracting that might make the interviewer uncomfortable, even subconsciously.

Facial jewelry

A birthmark

A mole

A scar

A burn mark

A mole

It probably does happen that the most beautiful of available candidates has a fortunate edge in filling that vacancy. But much more importantly, if a person's face has a distracting blemish, that is what can really hurt his or her chances. If an interviewer's attention is drawn toward a nose ring or a burn mark instead of to your charming eyes and your winning smile - or to what you are trying to say! - it does several unfortunate things:

- It reduces your power to win over the interviewer, who is distracted away from your smile, your eyes and your message.

- It makes you less pleasant to look at, let's face it. If an interviewer finds it unpleasant to look at you, that does not create the positive impression you need to win her over.

- It could even make the interviewer wonder if you would unfortunately create a negative impression in the field, causing clients to go elsewhere (for the same reasons that you might not be hired).

You should remove all facial jewellery before going to an interview. Keep accessories beyond “tasteful” - that means what even the most conservative people consider tasteful, not what is considered tasteful in your own social clique - and of course out of your face.

Use makeup to cover up as best as possible any natural or accidental disfigurements, such as moles, scars, gouges and burn marks. TV personalities use makeup all the time, so you can, too. Just because you are scarred, does not mean your employment chances need to be scarred for life.