The third comic pretty much captures how I feel on dressing for the job you want. I enjoy the work I do now, but seriously would love to never wear “business” clothes again. There always seems to be this idea that the only proper goal in a job is to advance to management. Even worse, if you do choose to advance to management, you’ve got to have a particular wardrobe and attitude that has been blessed by the old boys club.
Last year I was at a conference where someone felt the need to inform my boss they wouldn’t hire me because I’m unkempt. While obviously they can make a hiring judgement based on appearances, that’s rather short sighted. It turns out that my shoulder length hair outweighs my PhD in computer science in terms of my qualifications to work in big-data analytics. Fortunately my boss is reasonable and treated the interlude as a source of amusement.
Yeah, I’ve been considering whether to look for a new job, and one of the key points is ‘would I have to but my beard to get one’. I was just thinking this morning that if my facial hair outweighs (figuratively) my qualifications, ability and experience, I’m probably asking the wrong people. Maybe I should get a job solving problems like Maria?
Also, not going to wear a tie every day (some days I like to, for a change).
Chris Rodda is the author of Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History and Debunking David Barton's Jefferson Lies: #2 - Jefferson Founded a Secular University. Since the release of Liars For Jesus in 2006, Chris has been blogging at Talk2Action.org, Huffington Post, and elsewhere about the use of historical revisionism in everything from education to legislation. Chris's blog on Freethoughtblogs.com will eventually accompany a weekly podcast, "This Week in Christian Nationalism," if Chris can ever find the time to launch it. In the meantime, the name of her blog will continue to make no sense.
Chris is also the Senior Research Director for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), but the opinions expressed by her on this blog are her personal opinions, and not necessarily those of MRFF.
:)
2 comments
Reverend PJ
January 20, 2013 at 10:26 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The third comic pretty much captures how I feel on dressing for the job you want. I enjoy the work I do now, but seriously would love to never wear “business” clothes again. There always seems to be this idea that the only proper goal in a job is to advance to management. Even worse, if you do choose to advance to management, you’ve got to have a particular wardrobe and attitude that has been blessed by the old boys club.
Last year I was at a conference where someone felt the need to inform my boss they wouldn’t hire me because I’m unkempt. While obviously they can make a hiring judgement based on appearances, that’s rather short sighted. It turns out that my shoulder length hair outweighs my PhD in computer science in terms of my qualifications to work in big-data analytics. Fortunately my boss is reasonable and treated the interlude as a source of amusement.
Bjarni
January 20, 2013 at 11:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hi Rev,
Yeah, I’ve been considering whether to look for a new job, and one of the key points is ‘would I have to but my beard to get one’. I was just thinking this morning that if my facial hair outweighs (figuratively) my qualifications, ability and experience, I’m probably asking the wrong people. Maybe I should get a job solving problems like Maria?
Also, not going to wear a tie every day (some days I like to, for a change).