Does appearance

influence career
opportunities?

Tristram Hooley
(Professor of Career Education,
University of Derby)
Presentation to Vitae
conference 2015.

In general?
For careers?
For
academic
careers?

How can we respond to this?

Does appearance matter?

About our research

Appearance
and careers
work
Appearance
and
graduates

What do
practitioners
think?
Possible
responses?
Ethics

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

In general?
For careers?
For
academic
careers?

How can we respond to this?

Does appearance matter?

About our research

Appearance
and careers
work
Appearance
and
graduates

What do
practitioners
think?
Possible
responses?
Ethics

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

About our research

Weve done four projects so far
If you look the part youll get the job.
Graduate dress code
Advising on career image
The graduate selfie
Working with my co-researchers Julia Yates, Beth Cutts and
Kiren Bagri Kaur.

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

What we havent done

Anything on the attitudes of professionals working in
researcher development.
Anything on the attitudes of PhDs, postdocs or
researchers.
But, this would be interesting!

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

In general?
For careers?
For
academic
careers?

How can we respond to this?

Does appearance matter?

About our research

Appearance
and careers
work
Appearance
and
graduates

What do
practitioners
think?
Possible
responses?
Ethics

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Does appearance matter?

people make quick judgements about attractiveness
attractiveness is associated with other positive
characteristics (the halo effect)
attractiveness can be enhanced (hair, clothes, make up)
appearance conveys information about an individual (e.g.
class, sub-culture) and people infer characteristics
there is also some observation of a beauty is beastly
effect
much of this is taking place on a sub-conscious level.

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Does it matter for careers?

A meta-analysis of experimental studies by Hosoda et al.
(2003) suggests:
consistent (moderate effect size) influence of
attractiveness on job-related outcomes
this is diminished by having more job-relevant information
about individuals
gender differences in these findings are complex

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

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

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Aesthetic labour
Some industries overtly recruit for appearance.
Aesthetic 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.
www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Getting job
interviews

Career
Image
Beauty

Job
offers

Selfpresentation

Interpersonal
skills

Promotion

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

How students manage these issues

Ill wear what I want to wear.
If I was a teacher, I wouldnt take my ear piercing out,
because you cant be defined by what you do. Then thats all
people ever know about you.
If there are rules, arent you just going to follow
them?
Id wear a suit. Theres nothing else you can wear really
You sort of pick-up whats acceptable, like, you know, to
what extent are like jeans acceptable in a work place.

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Does it matter for academics?

Romano & Bordieri (1989) observed the halo effect
operating between students and academics.
Students online ratings of academics correlate with their
hotness (Bonds-Raacke et al. 2007).
Does attractiveness and appearance also influence
hiring, promotion and funding decisions?

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Academic dress code

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham

www.phdcomics.com

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

In general?
For careers?
For
academic
careers?

How can we respond to this?

Does appearance matter?

About our research

Appearance
and careers
work
Appearance
and
graduates

What do
practitioners
think?
Possible
responses?
Ethics

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

What do career practitioners think?

477 careers practitioners
Most thought that appearance and attractiveness was
important and were willing to talk about it with clients.
They feel well informed about the issues but would
welcome more training and support with ethics.
They thought that interpersonal skills were most
important and beauty the least important.
They were not always keen to raise the issues that they
believed to have the most impact e.g. weight.

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Possible responses

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

References

Bonds-Raacke, J., & Raacke, J. D. (2007). The relationship between physical

attractiveness of professors and students ratings of professor quality. Journal of
Psychiatry, Psychology and Mental Health, 1(2), 1-7.
Cutts, B., Hooley, T. & Yates, J. (2015) Graduate Dress Code: How undergraduates are
planning to use hair, clothes and make-up to smooth their transition to the workplace.
Industry and Higher Education, 29 (4):271-282.
Hosoda, M., Stone-Romero, E. F., & Coats, G. (2003). The effects of physical
attractiveness on job-related outcomes: A meta-analysis of experimental studies.
Personnel Psychology, 56(2), 431.
Hooley, T. and Yates, J. (2015). If you look the part youll get the job: should career
professionals help clients to enhance their career image? British Journal of Guidance
and Counselling, 43(4): 438-451
Romano, S. T., & Bordieri, J. E. (1989). Physical attractiveness stereotypes and
students perception of college professors. Psychological Reports, 64(3c), 1099-1102.

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Tristram Hooley
Professor of Career Education
International Centre for Guidance Studies
University of Derby
http://www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
t.hooley@derby.ac.uk
@pigironjoe
Blog at
http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.wordpress.com

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

In conclusion
Appearance and attractiveness matter to career.
This is true in a wide range of employment contexts and
seems likely to be true in higher education and research
work.
Prior to transitions people are often concerned about
issues related to appearance and attractiveness.
We should be talking about these issues more.
How we talk about this needs to be carefully handled.

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk