I am on a hiring committee for a professional position in education. (I don’t want to be too precise for obvious reasons). We were reviewing candidates yesterday and I seem to have set off a firestorm by what I didn’t think of as a very controversial comment.
In response to one applicant, who I thought was very intelligent and personable and capable of doing the job, I said
“The only thing that really bothered me were the tattoos and the nosering.”
The applicant wore a jacket over a short sleeved blouse. When she took off her jacket, her forearms were covered in tattoos, all of them nicely done, and she wore a small but very noticeable nosering to the interview. (If for any reason it matters, the applicant is white and the nosering is not a part of her religion.)
I have been attacked for being a flaming liberal much more often for my conservative views, but I’ve been called “insensitive”, “intolerant”, “racist” (in spite of the fact that I’m white and the applicant’s white) and “Old South” in my thinking. I’ve also been told that as a gay male I should be thankful people don’t have such preconceptions about me.
Okay---- I couldn’t care less how somebody wishes to attire themselves in their spare time. The applicant can wear a Studebaker hubcap on a chain suspended by nipple rings for all I care when she’s not here- BUT this is a professional work environment and rightly or wrongly people’s first impression of you is based on appearance. I would be much more comfortable if I could wear one of my oversized T-shirts and a pair of my workout shorts and flip-flops to work rather than business casual, but I don’t because I want to instill faith in my abilities to the people who come up to me- it’s called “professionalism”. I live in a conservative area of the country and have concerns that tattoos and a nosering might present an uncomfortable image to people. On the issue of my “gayness”, I certainly don’t introduce myself with “Hi- I’m here and I’m queer, how can I help you?” nor do I wear a rainbow flag around my neck- I’m not closeted but neither do I bring it up in professional conversations with relative strangers.
So your honest opinion (like you have to ask a Doper to “not hold back”): Are noserings and tattoos unprofessional, or am I an Eisenhower relic?
Yes they are. If you can cover the tattoo, do so. Remove the nose ring during business hours. If the office doesn’t have a dress code, then perhaps a nose ring has a place there. But if there is a dress code in place then you must dress professionally. Which means no tattoos, no nose rings, no neon colored hair, etc.
I’m hardly a three-piece suit kind of guy – I adore the business casual revolution – and I think you’re absolutely right. Wearing a nosering is absolutely unprofessional in an interview environment, unless you’re applying to be a bouncer. If you’ve got tatoos on your forearms, you should wear long sleeves.
I’m all for asserting one’s unique individuality, but in the right place and at the right time. A white-collar work environment is neither. Save it for quittin’ time and your weekends.
Do you ‘act’ Gay? If in one of your meetings, a co-worker asked you to “butch” it up more, around vistors; would you be offended? Knowing that some people are uncomfortable around “gayness”, would you be unprofessional if you didn’t “beef up” your mannerisms and language? Yes, I am stereotyping in this instance and am not calling you a bitchy queen.
As far as your OP, we’re talking degrees here…I think there’s a difference, at least in the States, between a small nosering and a bone. Nice, professional tattoos and homemade prison tats and whether they’re on her face or covered.
The world is changing and your sensibilities are going to have to evolve…within reason of course.
How can you judge tattoos as if they are part of a persons mindset? Professionalism is a measure of ability and attitude, not solely appearance.
Does having tattoos make you unprofessional? Of course not. What if the applicant has the tattoos done when he/she was, say, 18 and feeling rebellious? Now they are 35, wised up and consummately professional in behaviour and outlook, but have not had the money or inclination to remove the tattoos? Does that mean you should continue to judge them, and hold them for the rest of their lives to the standards they represented or related to when they were in their teens?
So, no, having tattoos are not necessarily unprofessional. That should be judged not on your looks but on your behaviour and skills. But choosing to wear a long sleeved shirt to cover any obvious tattoos in that situation (like a classroom or a client meeting) would obviously be sensible and appropriate too.
It depends a lot on the profession, I suppose. I had a nosering and cartilage piercings in my ears up until the week I began my first job as a lawyer. I was a bit sad about the nosering since I’d had it in for over ten years, but I took them out. I also have very large sleeve tattoos all the way down my arms, so I wear long sleeve shirts every day. Suit and tie thing. Most of the people I work with don’t even know about the tattoos, and the ones that do (after hours cocktail buddies) got used to it quickly and think nothing of it.
For me, maintaining this appearance is an absolute necessity. Law is a very conservative profession to be in. Moreover, I’m on a federal judge’s staff, so courtroom decorum and proper appearance are even more important (I could get away with more if I were, say, a criminal defense lawyer). But not every job is like mine. Noserings and visible tattoos may (may) be more acceptable on, say, a college professor with tenure, or an IT guy. It also depends on location; it seems tattoos and piercings are much more common and raise fewer eyebrows in Austin than they do in Houston, f’rinstance.
So, I don’t think there’s any one answer. It depends a lot on the job, how much the person will be dealing with the public, etc. But I will say since she is otherwise intelligent and qualified, if there’s any room for slack to be cut, please do so. At the very least just ask her to cover her arms and take out the ring at work, and explain why you feel it’s necessary.
If your company is conservative, it would be within reason to ask her to leave the nose ring home and keep her tats covered, as long as it is a company-wide dress-code rule. If it isn’t a conservative company, I don’t see the problem. I saw a woman here at work who is easily pushing 60 with a tattoo on her ankle. And I work in a huge office building where business casual is the code. Indeed, the world is changing. You can’t pass up a talented employee because of some personal choices that can be stashed away during business hours.
I disagree with holmes. The nosering is unprofessional, and the tattoos should be covered with long sleeves, at least for the first interview.
I don’t give a rat’s ass one way or the other if you have tattoos or noserings, by the way.
I just don’t want to hire anyone in this economy who isn’t willing to put themselves in the best possible position to get the job for which they’re interviewing. In this case, one should realize that there are people who don’t feel tattoos and noserings are professional, and one should react accordingly.
I think most people know that when they’re going to a serious interview, where they know what kinda people will be interviewing them, like this sounded like, they would cover up any signs of them looking like a “rebelious teenager”.
However it sounded like she was sending a signal, like “I don’t care about my tattoos cause they have no impact on how well i will be doing my job”
Almost like she wanted you to see them, as a sign of her confiedence.
But what do I know, I’m no psychologist.
Anyway, I’m hoping we’re moving to better times, where what you dress is not what’s important, but what you do and say and mean.
It has to be looked at in respect to the rest of the applicants abilities. Did she decide to wear the ring and show the tats on purpose, because she was potentially over qualified for the position offered, and wanted to use them as a way of getting arround any possible bad effect of her overqualification. Or was she wearing them to help give her an extremely confident air, as in ‘she is so darned good, she can flout minor etiquette’. Otherwise she seemsa little foolish to have not removed the nose ring (I assume all nose rings are removable and replaceable) at least for the interval. I would not mark her down for the nose ring, but for the foolishness in keeping it in. The tats on the other hand cannot be easily removed, and so should be ignored as a part of the interview, though there may be cause to warn the interviewee that they would have to be covered up if she got the job, if that would be a requirement.
If she’s ‘wised up’ as you said, then she would have taken the stud out for the interview, as well as wearing long sleeves (or failing that, not removing her jacket).
Professionalism may not be solely a matter of appearance, but appearance is better than half of it, especially if your position involves any interaction on behalf of your company to clients, donors, the press, etc.
Them’s the breaks. People in the market for goods have every right to be shallow- they have a lot of applicants competing to provide these services, and those that won’t do their best to present a professional face (in most cases, this is very conservative) are not really worth talking to. Two things I’ve learned in life-
it doesn’t matter how skilled you are, if you look like a bum, people will treat you like one.
no matter how smart you are, if you can not communicate well, people will think that you are dumb.
Not necessarily. Piercing jewlery isn’t like earrings. They’re designed to be left in place, and can be a huge pain in the ass to take out. A nose ring may have to be removed by a professional with a ring opening tool. She may not have been able to take it out herself (and may not have realized it until it was too late!).
I find it absurd that a few body decorations would cost someone who is “very intelligent and personable and capable” a chance at a job. I can understand the decision if tattoos/piercings would be bad for business (e.g. when hiring for a conservative law firm), but otherwise, it would be stupid to reject someone who is potentially valuable over something so superficial.
I despise facial piercings but it’s a free country and people vcan mutilate themselves if they want…but they also have to deal with the raections they’re going to get. I’m not alone in finding it insulting and disrespectful for someone to show up for a job interview with that shit in their face. What the hell is wrong with people? Do they think they’re going impress anybody. Do they think they’re expessing “individuality?” What is the point? An interviewer has no obligation, whatever, to try to “look past” what is obviously an obnoxious facet of an applicant’s personality. If somebody wants to be treated like a grown up they need to act like a freaking grown up
Every time this kind of subject comes up I am always shocked to see how naive many people can be. It may be nice to live in a world where only our intellectual merits will be judged but that is never going to happen.
The bottom line is appearance (not good looks) is probably the single largest factor in making a favorable impression. To me, if this individual was an intelligent, personable, and capable, as has been implied then they would have realized the obvious fact that the tattoos and nose-ring were not going to be appropriate in an interview. The fact that this person did not grasp such a common sense factor reflects very poorly on their social abilities and therefore would most likely not be a good fit within a corporate environment.
I consider myself a good example. For a living, I sell software solutions to banks. The typical software deal is over 1 million dollars in licensing, hardware, and professional services. Needless to say, to win this type of business I must be be an expert on the banking industry, my products, my competitors, my potential client’s issues, market trends, contract negotiations, etc. In spite of my ability in all of these things, if I showed up for a first meeting with tattoos or a pierced nose I would never, ever be taken seriously. No one would care if I had the best solution.
Of course, when they sign the contract they have no idea that under my Brooks Brother’s dress shirt are two shiny nipple rings and that beneath my suit trousers is a big honkin’ Prince Albert piercing.
