Skip to main content

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall…Who’s the Most Professional of All?

I was watching television and I happened upon a makeover show. On this show, people are given make overs of clothing, hair, and make up. Before the makeover begins, a picture of the person in their chosen attire is presented to random people on the street and are asked their impression of the person. After the opinion is given, the random person is asked to rate the show’s participant based on looks.  The statements of the random individuals is not favorable and the person is given a makeover by professional stylists and beauticians.  The same random people on the street are asked again what the opinion is and of course it is much more favorable. The random people now “love” the image of the person.
 
I watched two episodes of this show. Each time the makeover candidate was asked why she wanted to change her appearance. Each time the reason was career related. One woman was unemployed and seeking employment. The other was employed, but seeking a career change. The first show had a young and petite woman, who had large tattoos on her body in visible places. They were colorful and could not be easily covered.  She also had long pink hair and heavy dark make up. Her clothing was extreme. One outfit made her look like a mermaid. She stated that she was seeking a job and was having difficulty finding one because she was not being taken seriously by employers. The second make over candidate was a young woman in her late 20’s wearing clothing that she had since she was in middle school. She was sporting hair with two different colors, plastic jelly shoes with glitter on them, halter tops with cartoon patterns on them, and a fanny pack.  This woman stated to the host that she has been working in a pre-school for 10 years and wanted to change her career to become a hairdresser.  The end of each of these examples ends with a full make over into clothing that is fitting for the professional environment that each was seeking. Details such as hair and makeup were not over looked and the opinions of each random person changed to the favorable “love.”
 
This show is not booked as a show about workforce development or a show about job seeking, but it does bring up a great point. Image is important for job seeking.  Many job seekers have an image problem. The image of the person is not relaying that they are candidates for the profession that they are seeking.  While the above examples are extreme, how many job seekers are not dressing appropriately for the job they are interviewing? Do you have job seekers that are not wearing a suit for a managerial position? Do you have job seekers wearing boots to job interviews?  How many men choose to not wear a tie with a button down shirt?  Dress may not be an issue for some job seekers, but excessive fragrance, smoke smell, visible tattoos, or heavy inappropriate make up will be.  
 
Over the years, I have learned that I cannot just assume an individual knows what appropriate job interview attire is. I have also learned that it is not enough to show pictures of interview clothing. The best way to measure a person’s understanding of this subject is to ask the job seeker to come to an appointment dressed for an interview. The chosen attire is a conversation starting point. Other image related conversations may involve harnessing youthful appearance for mature workers, or hygiene issues for someone that struggles in this area.
 
 
As workforce development professionals, we may have to wear many hats with the job seekers we service. It is no longer enough to just speak on the technical mechanics of job seeking to get employment. Instead, we need to look to the whole person, image included, to assist them with finding employment. Questions, comments, ideas? Feel free to post below or to reach me by email at kcirincione@gmail.com, on Twitter @kcirincione, or on Linked In at https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenjcirincione. ~ Karen Cirincione

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mastering the Grilled Cheese Sandwich Project

An engaging book club discussion about email, how we work, and also just how we as people manage our lives. The more we talked the more I started to realize that essentially project management is essentially a life skill everyone needs to master to be successful. If we simplify Project Management down to the easiest way of explain it and applying, we can define it as taking a big end goal and break it down to smaller goals, figuring out the tasks with each smaller goal, and then allocating lots of resources along the way. Ultimately at the core of project management is planning and organizing, but communication is really at the heart of it all. A project may be big, like building a bridge, creating and implementing software, or it can be as small as figuring out what to make for dinner. Along the way to said goal, every step needs to be clear and everyone needs to communicate about all the said steps along the way. Sounds easy, but apparently it is not so simple. One would think ev...
Post a Comment
Read more

A WIOA Fairy Tale

I thought it was time to have a little fun with WIOA and write a fairy tale. My last fairy tale was published in June of 2014 and was before WIOA legislation. To read the first workforce development fairy tale, check out the archives. Once upon a time in a far off land called Weeoha, lived a community of residents. Many of these residents had jobs and careers, but some found themselves in need of services and assistance to get jobs. Some were reliant on the government for assistance with basic needs because they could not find jobs. Three of these residents, Jack Butcher, John Baker, and Josie Candlemaker, found themselves not satisfied with their lack of opportunity and decided to go on a pilgrimage to find the legendary Cup of Career Success.   According to urban legend, whomever drank from this cup was promised eternal employment and self-sufficient wages as long as they desired. Jack, John, and Josie set out on foot to find the legendary cup. Their first stop was to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How do you Birthday?

Another year in my life has passed. It’s time for another birthday. Each year as the day approaches, I take the time to reflect on my past year, my accomplishments, and my goals for the year. My birthday is like my personal New Years’ celebration with another opportunity to have the best year ever.   I am not afraid of a birthday. Age is just a number, but each year is what you make of it. Each year I have seen the sun rise, the rain fall, and the snow melt, I have been given a gift from the universe. Many people do not get to see another birthday. I owe myself the opportunity to set goals and feel proud as I work towards achieving them. Sometimes these goals have been born from unhappy feelings and bad situations, but growth brings wisdom.   In my working life, and especially as a workforce professional, I know some of my growth must be professionally. Having experience working with job seekers looking for jobs, I understand how crucial professional growth is...
Post a Comment
Read more