"Look at that shallow boy!"

Looks > education?

This conclusion is brought to you by this article (thanks, Hillary, who posted it on Facebook). Apparently, the hiring managers Newsweek polled believe that looks are more important than a job candidate's schooling. (Really, they worded this to make it sound more dramatic, because a manager thinking where a candidate went to school is not very important may be a good thing.) What sucks for me is that looks matter more than a sense of humor (especially after being brought down earlier this year after reading this article about how men don't want funny women). Why would one prefer working with a humorless hot person over a hilarious ugly person?

The survey results also reveal that 57% of managers believe an unattractive person will have a more difficult time getting hired. This is meaningless, because I could say the same thing. What's sad is that 60% of hiring managers believe this practice is okay when the people getting hired are working in retail or represent the face of the company.

A very popular example of this is American Apparel, a company that requires hiring managers to take "full body head to toe" photos of their employees before they are hired. AA claims this has to do with "personal style," but if the employees are going to be wearing AA clothes when they're working anyway, couldn't they theoretically just show up in a Princess Leia costume? There's also Abercrombie & Fitch. According to my friends who have worked there, they tell their employees to ask the good-looking people who enter the store if they'd like to work there. That's how they do their "recruiting."

I'm torn on this issue because I think it's important to dress well in order to feel good and be perceived in a positive light by others, but I can't stand the idea of an attractive woman being hired over an average-looking woman with great credentials just because the boss wants to have a pretty thing around to lust after (or to have an affair with, since guys are really into that these days).

Confidence is still more important than looks, though, so standing up straight, looking people in the eye and smiling will have to suffice. I guess you can always just trick people into thinking you're good-looking.

Note: The title of this post is a Boy Meets World reference. Of course.