MSN Money Offers Job Advice For Ugly People
17 September 2009, 9:53 AM. By Alex Alvarez
Ugly? Unemployed? Fret not, monsterface. You can still get a job in finance. You simply need to keep a few little rules in mind. MSN recruited finance bloggers / expert ugly people “FMF” and Marty Nemko to help them help you. It just takes a little effort on your part, like paying for plastic surgery. Here are their foolproof rules for helping your chances of finding a job, despite the fact that it appears that your neck has thrown up something vaguely head-shaped:
- Make the most of what you’ve got. Stand up straight, wear decent clothes, be clean — and, ladies, use makeup to full advantage. Marty notes that makeovers are available for free at department stores. Keep your weight under control.
Note: If you’re a man, hey! Don’t worry! As long as you are over 40, you can forget worrying about your hair, your skin, your weight and your clothes. (As long as they’re expensive, you’re fine.) Under 40? Make sure you keep hitting the gym and have a head full of hair. Unless you’re really, really, really ridiculously wealthy. In which case, it doesn’t matter how a dude looks.
But ladies, please. Don’t be fat and makeupless. It shows a lack of respect for your self.
- Know more and work harder than the pretty people. FMF says that “you MUST deliver results and have a good attitude.” Marty adds:
Don’t skimp on self-development. If you have mediocre skills, that’s strike two. Add a mediocre personality, and it’s usually strike three and you’re out.
This is bull. You don’t need skills or a personality if you’re hot.
- Don’t give up hope. One of the studies cited by FMF found that education and confidence in your abilities have more effect on your income than a beautiful face.
Haha! Do not make us laugh.
The most depressing part of all this is that they actually have a point: In many industries, how you look really does impact your ability to get hired / promoted. Which prompts the question:
How does this reality play out when it comes to Latinos? We’ve always wondered whether it made a difference to introduce ourselves as “Alex” or “Alejandra” (most people we’ve worked with had, in something of a surprise to us, never heard the last name Alvarez, so they could imagine we were from a number of places). We’ve gotten observations that we don’t “look” Latina from people who’ve hired us for past jobs. So, was that to our benefit? If we were darker, or had different features, or didn’t have green eyes, would that have hurt our chances of having the honor of being allowed to sit in a cubicle where no one could see us?
What’s your take on this?
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“Marty also has some relevant remarks for employers: “All other things being equal, I’d give the nod to an ugly candidate.” You can probably hire them for less and they’ll work harder than those who know how to get by on their looks.”
Fantastic. Ol’ Marty goes from being a concerned friend to the uggos to throwing them right under the bus.
And I think the Latino look can help or hurt. There’s nothing employers like more than “White Minorities.” That way they get to add “commitment to diversity” to their recruiting brochures and provide a convenient defense to discrimination suits without actually having to deal with people who might be different from them.
Seriously, with a personality and charitable nature like his, who needs looks?
one of my excoworkers… sad but true. She should read this article. It sounds mean. but that girl needed help. Everyone thought she had some kind of mental problem because of the way she acted and she didn’t take care of herself too much. home girl was supersensitive, dressd like it was 1992, bad hair, nasty-gross you out bad habits and halitosis. I always wantd to tell her, to get her shit together but I didn’t want to make her cry.
I developed lupus over the last year. There is a mark that I have unlovingly named “Cheetah face” that has covered my cheeks, nose, forehead, and my right ear. I don’t consider myself “ugly”, but I am asymmetrically beautiful now that I developed these marks.
Sometimes I even forget it’s there, but it makes me self-conscious. I covered it with makeup last year, but that made me feel like I was covering up some marks on my face really badly.
I work with young people and they tend to be more forgiving. They ask questions and then move on.
If I ever move jobs I hope some young people will be on the hiring committee so I have a fair shake!
Marty Nemko is on the radio in the Bay Area and sometimes I am disgusted by his advice. Ay, Dios mio!
But it’s nice to have an ear to what some employers might be thinking. Disconcerting, but I’d rather be armed with a little dose of reality ¿verdad?
On the other hand, I think I got some jobs based on 3-fer status (a white psychologist told me that I was a 3-fer once): female, latina, black. Great. Triple threat!
Y ahora que soy “fea”? Watch out, world!
Watch out indeed. Personally, in the workplace and out, I’d deal with some scar over someone who is ugly on the inside. It’s not even a choice, really.
Wow in my opinion all of you are disgustingly superficial! Appearance isn’t everything and besides everyone is beautiful in their own way! The way people look at beauty nowadays at least for women is you have to be super skinny, big breasted, and cake the make up on so much no one would be able to tell who you really were if it was off. I think all of you are quite shallow and immature! People like this make me sick! A beautiful face is not always going to get you a job or a promotion. It’s the skills and knowledge you have that will get you further in life not how pretty you look and if anyone does hire a person based on how they look then they are slow in the head just like all of you. =]