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Can being attractive damage your career

Beauty is a thing to admire, except when getting a job in some specific areas of work, according to an expert at the University of Colorado Denver Business School.

Assistant Professor Stefanie Johnson who worked on the study with Robert Dipboye, Professor of Psychology at the University of Central Florida. Discovered that Job descriptions like manager of research and development, director of finance, mechanical engineer and construction supervisor, which have masculinity affixed in them, don’t regard beauty as necessary.

In these professions the study found that being attractive was highly detrimental to women, although in most other kind of job, attractive women were preferred. The study also revealed that, handsome men are not subjected to the same type of prejudice and being attractive is always an edge for a man.

The study was backed by a Newsweek survey involving 202 hiring managers and 964 members of the society, the outcome was that looks have an advantage in any level of the office hierarchy. Asked to rate nine character traits in the magnitude of one to ten, with 10 considered as the most significant, the survey showed that beauty ranked third, over educational attainment and sense of humor.

Knowing the significance of hiring and the result of making an erroneous selection, the study admonishes those who let stereotypes get the better of them when accepting applicants.

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