Think of a fresh approach to occupying a fresh “you” with your personal image. There’s plenty of iniquity to get riled up about in the world today. But not putting your best personal image out there would be one of the greatest injustices because you have total control of it.
As we all well know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what if the beholder is a hiring manager? No matter who you are, beauty bias may be holding you back. And it’s not illegal.
While we enjoy certain protections under the law, thanks to the Civil Rights Act and other various federal and state laws, there’s absolutely no law protecting us against beauty bias.
Okay, fine. There’s no law. So what?
When thinking of updating your online photo, the obvious temptation is to pick up your own camera and snap a picture without much thought or planning. Just point, click, and shoot. But as the subject matter, your goal is to have a picture that best represents your personal brand and image. Solid planning goes a long way toward helping you get that visual message across to others.
Thanks to Jessica Bennett and Newsweek for blowing the lid on what we’ve all long suspected about looks: looking good will get you made and paid better than looking not so good.
For men who’ve hit the big 5-0 who are looking for that new job, it can be a challenge envisioning how a modernized appearance leads to a positive result. Far from fresh out of college senior year, you don’t feel like a senior citizen either. No man I know wants to be perceived as old, and values his life experience. These tips will help modernize a man’s image, to make the most of his experience, and minimize the effects of aging.
Looking for work is a full-time job. You want to be taken seriously and you don’t want anyone thinking that somehow you’re past your prime. Here are some quick tips to help you look more modern than matronly when you’re job interviewing and when you have landed that job that says, “Career 2.0.” Keep this advice in mind not just for job searches, but also if you’re looking for a new love, or just a new, updated look.
Last week I had the opportunity to lead a career workshop entitled “Looking Current and Age Appropriate” for a group of women and men who age 50 and over. My challenge? To somehow simulate my 1:1 client experience with a large group. To accomplish this, I prepared an assessment checklist and then paired up the group so each pair could assess each other using the carefully constructed list. Each person left the workshop with a short and manageable action plan as a result. There was great interaction between participants, and their feedback was strongly positive.
Friday night I was at the movies and my cell phone buzzed. Racing out of the theatre in the middle of a great movie and into the hall corridor, the call was from a local TV reporter with whom I’m developing a relationship. She wanted to interview me for a story, and would be happy to meet me at a coffee shop to do the shoot. I explained how we were at the movies, that I was not dressed appropriately to appear on camera, but that as soon as the movie broke, I’d be happy to make myself appropriately presentable and meet with her and her cameraman.
This morning the “Today Show” began a short series called “Build Your Brand.” I was intrigued because they claimed the intention was to help people who are in the large job market how to build their personal brands. The expert, Martin Lindstrom, gave four pieces of advice this morning; one in particular sounding off my inner alarm bells.
How many times have you heard that saying? How many times have you thought that saying was a bunch of bunk? This is what happens with an abundance of overuse and an underwhelming amount of explanation.