(I’m so excited I have finally been around recruiting and HR long enough to say…)
I remember when Visual CV made it’s pitch at ERE Spring last year. None of us knew the economy would soon be in the crapper and while there were lots of questions at the presentation, most felt the product was cool but a bit of a vanity tool. When I came back and mentioned tools like Visual CV and its counterparts to local HR Practitioners, I almost got tarred and feathered. The main concern was discrimination.
My answer was, “if discrimination is going to happen, it’ll happen, all these tools change is WHEN.” In other words, the problem is with the discriminator, not the tools that bring a visual component into the screening process sooner.
In any case, this all came up recently when a young college student came to me to ask for help in her job search. Findning a position that would not only pay her an approriate hourly rate (her background is as an executive assistant) but also allow her to finish her last few courses before graduation in December, was proving difficult in a market where few concessions are given.
One quasi-interview had her near tears. She walked in, feshly armed with a suit she’d spent her last paycheck on, ready to expound on her resume (pretty robust for someone her age) and excited about the new opportunity that lay ahead. The interviewer looked her up and down, read a few lines of her resume and put it aside, saying:
“You know, here at CorpTrack, we’re not just about sending out a pretty face.”
Surprised but determined to forge ahead, she said “Well, that’s not really what I’m about and I think if you take a look at some of my experience, you’ll see that.”
He didn’t and she managed to fumble her way through the rest of the interview, embarrassed about her looks and unable to concentrate on her presentation. (Note: she was in no way dressed provacatively and her hair was pulled back into a neat chignon.)
Of course, it goes without saying that this guy was out of line. But HOW out of line? What if you put another descriptive adjective in the place of “pretty”? What if he had said:
-fat
-black
-mature
-sexy
-ugly
Not just a terrible story but perhaps a lawsuit. Possibly. Have you ever faced discrimination before the interview even started? Have you felt like the interviewer bypassed your information once he or she took a look at you?
What about for HR Pros or Hiring Managers? Have you ever decided to judge a book by its cover? Is there ever a time that is justifiable (such as overtly sexy clothing, sloppy appearance, inappropriate appearance for the specific position)? I want to hear from you!
Undoubtedly this is a common problem. For those that can’t admit that a plethora of the “insert the adjectives here” don’t affect their hiring decisions, they would be in denial. In fact, admitting your biases is the first step to overcoming them. I’m a big enough person to say, “I have my own discriminations, and it’s a problem” and I can over compensate my interview process for that person to give them a fair shake.
Judging a book by its cover…
What if the interviewee came in dressed as a slob (think Will Smith in “Pursuit of Happyness”). The society we live in here has become (as a whole) completely superficial. If one doesn’t dress well, look good, isn’t personable and so on, their chances for immediate success plunge. Why? We have been trained to exalt the pretty, the strong, the popular… the list goes on. Now – if that trend could be reversed, not only would the general public have higher self-esteem (because we wouldn’t be judged by our “cover”), but productivity would be higher along with morale.
Great post as always Maren!
I’ve been doing executive search for 25 years and have published extensively on the subject of hiring and interviewing. I would contend that much of the research in this field shows that hiring by most hiring managers is not much different than it was 25 years ago.
Studies and research show that 1st impressions, rapport, likability can account for as much as 80% of the decision to move forward in the hiring process. The discrimination is not as much I don’t like you because you have a certain skin color or you are a certain gender. It’s more a function of a hiring manager hiring in their own image – they like to hire people just like them.
Until we can teach hiring managers to become open to people who are different than they are, and give them structured tools to remain objective in the interview process, we will continue to see various forms of discrimination occur primarily due to the sins of first impressions.
I used to joke with my clients that if you could remain objective for just the first 30 minutes in an interview, your hiring accuracy would soar.
Yeah, I completely relate! I’m super hot, so I always get hired.
I interviewed a guy for an accounting job this week. Fact is, this guy was turn-your-head smokin’ hot, tall, good hair, strong jaw, the Future Exec look all the way. He was having trouble connecting with his current employer and didn’t know what the issue was, but he said they were very critical and really never gave him a chance. I think he really had lived in a Beauty Bubble for most of his short career, and now that he was working at home for an overseas company, people were probably not responding to his looks in the way he was (most likely unwittingly) used to. He was a terrible interview, didn’t have a single question except about benefits, and couldn’t point to a single achievement in his entire career. He did smile at me a lot and tried to make me laugh a couple of times.
I wouldn’t say he was hired or not hired because of his looks, but they did play into the decision not to hire him if his looks had allowed him to skate by with his clueless answers to interview questions up to that point.
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I feel sorry for the girl in this story. But what was the interviewer thinking? Of course it’s important to be objective, but he rejects her because she’s too pretty? Even if her resume wasn’t as attractive as her face he should still be polite so he can enjoy 30 minutes of peaceful conversation with a beautiful girl.