you've got the look

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You’ve got the look?Dealing with career image

Professor Tristram Hooley


About this work

This is a new strand of work that I’ve been undertaking with Julia Yates (University of East London).

1. If you look the part you’ll get the job (literature based study – now published)

2. Graduate Dress Code (qualitative work with students – currently under review)

3. Giving advice on career image (quantitative survey in the UK - currently analysing data)

4. Would you send a selfie to an employer? (just starting)


What this isn’t


There is a lot of advice out there


Overview

Attractiveness and career

Career image

Practitioner responses

Addressing this in practice


6 new clients

• We are going to show you the next six clients who are going to walk into your office.

• What is your first reaction to each of them.– What do you think their chance of finding work is?– What do you think employers first reactions to them would be?– Is there anything that you would want to talk to them about.

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On one hand…• Smartness• Appropriateness• Attractiveness• Taste• Employers expectations

On the other• Class • Gender• Age• Disability• Race• Mainstream cultural

expectations

Key issues

Some tensions

Fitting in

Being yourself

Standing out

Being what

others what

you to be


What would the following women wear?

1. Black suit, crisp white shirt, black shoes with a low heel.

- Hobbs, LK BennettManagement consultant

2. Nice jeans, black top, black jacket, coloured scarf, low heeled boots.

- TKMaxx, Fat Face, GapUniversity lecturer

3. Nice jeans, fashionable top, heels. Very well groomed – really smart and tidy, clean and ironed. - Top Shop

Hairdresser

4. Casual trousers, shirt, cardigan, loafer moccasin shoes.

- Gap, White Stuff Primary teacher

5. Skinny jeans, print t-shirt, converse trainers.

- Hollister, All Saints

Advertising copywriter

6. Black leggings, a dress, cardigan and trainers.

- Charity shops or fairtrade catalogue

Community project admin

7. Smart black trousers. Flat comfortable black boots. A long sleeved top without a collar and a cardigan or fleece.

- Next or a charity shop.

Social worker

8. Very smart red wool jacket with a grey pencil skirt, silky blouse, nude tights and high heels. One statement piece of jewellery.

- Boden, Hobbs, Reiss

Corporate HR


Some evidence

• Beauty and attractiveness offers benefits across a range of different employment contexts for both men and women.

• This has been observed in relation to various aspects of attractiveness (e.g. facial attractiveness, weight, height)

• Dress is an important aspect of this, but may be more important for women than men.

• A “beauty is beastly effect” has also been observed for some roles and in some situations.


From an employers point of view

• Attractive sales assistants sell more• Attractive CEOs lead to increased share prices• Attractive negotiators get better deals• Attractive bosses generate more publicity• Attractive hedge fund managers attract greater fund flows• Attractive political candidates get more votes


Discussion

So what do we think about this evidence and about our assumptions and reactions?


Overview


Career image



Beauty

Interpersonal skills

Self-presentation

Career Image

Getting job interviews

Job offers

Promotion


Aesthetic labour

Some industries overtly recruit for appearance.

Aethetic labour describes the effort (and cost) involved in making yourself look good.

Can be seen as a way of discriminating on class as well as appearance.

Particular issue in the service industry and other customer facing roles.


Graduate dress code

“Obviously people do still go on image.”

“If you’ve got tattoos people think you’re a bad influence.”

“In the pub you’re not allowed piercings, tattoos, or anything that intimates that you have anything to your personality other than the job. (…) You’re not so much an individual you’re just a cog in the machine”


How graduates manage these issues

“I’ll wear what I want to wear.”

“If I was a teacher, I wouldn’t take my ear piercing out, because you can’t be defined by what you do. Then that’s all people ever know about you.”

“If there are rules, aren’t you just going to follow them?”

“I’d wear a suit. There’s nothing else you can wear really”

“You sort of pick-up what’s acceptable, like, you know, to what extent are like jeans acceptable in a work place.”


The role of gender

“If you wear a dress you might be a bit more feminine than if you were wearing like jeans and a t-shirt or something like that.(…) I do think there is probably a certain amount of pressure on women to look a certain way.”

“The more made-up you are, you’ve got that image of being more vacuous.”

“It’s a fine line for women…they can look smart or like they’re on a night out.”


Discussion

• Is career image important?

• Which element is most important?

• What do you engage with in your practice?


Overview


Career image




The practitioner’s angle

Interpersonal Skills Beauty Self-presentation0

1

2

3

4

5

How important are these to career success?


Would you ever advise a client on how they looked?

YesNoMaybe


What do practitioners think?

handshakeeye contact tattoos make-up piercings weight dress hair facial hair jewellery0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

would raise it

think it's important


What would you talk about?

What would you not talk about?


Overview


Career image




Should we?

• Ethical considerations. Is it right to talk about these issues?

• Practical considerations. Do we know enough about these issues?

• Client expectations. Will they be horrified if we bring it up?


Strategies

• Consciously avoiding discussion of appearance. • Addressing extreme cases. • Referral. • Facilitating reflection. • Viewing career image as a career management skill. • Selective advice giving. • Providing advice on career image.


IdeologiesFocus on society Focus on individual

Change Radical:I seek to change societies focus on image. It is unfair and wrong.

Progressive:I owe it to my clients to let them know how the world is and what they need to do to succeed in it

Status quo Conservative:The advertising industry does well when it’s full of beautiful people. It’s my job to encourage beautiful people to consider this industry.

Non-directive:My job is to help you work out what you want to do, and not to impose my values or opinions.


Where do you stand?


References

• Baert, S. S., & Decuypere, L. L. (2014). Better sexy than flexy? A lab experiment assessing the impact of perceived attractiveness and personality traits on hiring decisions. Applied Economics Letters,21(9), 597-601

• Commisso, M., & Finkelstein, L. (2012). Physical Attractiveness Bias in Employee Termination. Journal Of Applied Social Psychology, 42(12), 2968-2987.

• Hakim C (2010). Erotic capital. The European Sociological Review 26, 499–518.• Hazen, L. & Syrdhal, J. (2010). Dress Codes and Appearance Policies: What Not to Wear at Work. The Colorado

Lawyer, 55. • Hooley, T. & Yates, J. (2015). ‘If you look the part you’ll get the job.’ Should career professionals help clients to

enhance their career image? British Journal of Guidance and Counselling. • Johnson, S.K., Podratz, K.E., Dipboye, R.L., Gibbons, E. (2010). Physical Attractiveness Biases in Ratings of

Employment Suitability: Tracking Down the “Beauty is Beastly” Effect. The Journal of Social Psychology, 150, 301–318.

• Judge, T. A., & Cable, D. M. (2011). When it comes to pay, do the thin win? The effect of weight on pay for men and women. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 96, 95-112.

• Nickson, D., Warhurst, C., & Dutton, E. (2005). The importance of attitude and appearance in the service encounter in retail and hospitality. Managing Service Quality, 15, 195-208.

• Toledano, E. (2013). May the best (looking) man win: The unconscious role of attractiveness in employment decisions. Cornell HR Review.

• Tsetsura, K. (2012). A Struggle for Legitimacy: Russian Women Secure Their Professional Identities in Public Relations in a Hyper-Sexualized Patriarchal Workplace. Public Relations Journal, 6, 1-21.


www.derby.ac.uk/icegs

Tristram Hooley

Professor of Career Education

International Centre for Guidance Studies

University of Derby

http://www.derby.ac.uk/icegs

[email protected]

@pigironjoe

Blog at

http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.wordpress.com

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mailto:[email protected]

http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.posterous.com/


Conclusions

• Appearance and attractiveness is important for individual’s careers.

• The concept of career image provides a way to organise the different domains of attractiveness.

• Graduates anticipated these issues would be important. • Career professionals in the UK are discussing these

issues with clients. • But there are practical, ethical and political issues in

addressing these issues.

you've got the look

Documents

black jacket

black shoes

black suit

black leggings

flat comfortable black

nice jeans

new strand of work

skinny jeans