Unemployed guy washes, shaves, buys suit. Suddenly gets lots of jobs offers.

[rah]

If I'm interviewing a person, I don't care how good he/she is, if they didn't think it was important enough to at least look respectable for the interview, I'm not interested. Interviewing is an imprecise science and a lot of people have similar qualifications.
While behavioiral type interviewing does help, you're not going to learn about the real person in 60 minutes.
So usually you're not looking at what makes the person great, but more looking for those red flags and eliminating the losers. Not taking the time to look presentable for an interview is a big RED FLAG.

And I've noticed that people that don't look respectable often lack much respect for authority. While this isn't critical for employee, it usually is just part of a personality that going to cause problems in a group.
You have to be a really great employee to make me want to put up with all the extra maintenace that they're going to require.

[chequita guevara]

I suspect his getting a job has more to do with his notoriety than his shaving and getting "cleaned up."

[DinoDoc]

Yeah. Looking like a homeless person couldn't possibly have anything to do with him not getting a job.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by rah
If I'm interviewing a person, I don't care how good he/she is, if they didn't think it was important enough to at least look respectable for the interview, I'm not interested. Interviewing is an imprecise science and a lot of people have similar qualifications.
While behavioiral type interviewing does help, you're not going to learn about the real person in 60 minutes.
So usually you're not looking at what makes the person great, but more looking for those red flags and eliminating the losers. Not taking the time to look presentable for an interview is a big RED FLAG.

And I've noticed that people that don't look respectable often lack much respect for authority. While this isn't critical for employee, it usually is just part of a personality that going to cause problems in a group.
You have to be a really great employee to make me want to put up with all the extra maintenace that they're going to require.

I learned long ago that a lot about the job process entails employers looking for just about any reason to whittle down the number of applicants.

And usually the process is not about finding the best candidate. Rather, employers fear hiring a dud. So they want the familiar, the non-threatening. That's why referrals are so critical. The guy in H.R. can then wail, "It's not my fault if the new guy has turned out to be an idiot! He was recommended by X. Who'd have thought X could have led us so wrong?!"

[rah]

The fear of hiring a "dud" is big because of quite a few reasons. First, if they can fool you through the probationary period, the process to fire them can be quite time consumming and requires considerable paperwork and effort. (especially if they're a minority) But the main reason is the resources expended to train the person are wasted.

As I said, it's hard to figure that out in an interview. Even ending up with an average employee is not that bad of a thing. There are few super star and finding one through the interview process is USUALLY a matter of luck. By eliminating possible losers, you save your company money. And that's a primary job for most managers.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Solver
I'm not advocating not washing but I think that this proves yet again that society, by and large, is disgusting, arrogant and all about stereotypes. Why is it exactly that no one seems to think that a person's qualifications are the important thing? A guy barely qualified for the job wearing a good suit and cleanly shaved is more likely to get the job than a guy who's a genius in the area but is wearing jeans and hasn't shaved for three days.

No wonder, too, that many companies and institutions are filled with good-looking people who can't do jack at their jobs.

People
Society

You are defeating your own argument. How hard a worker can a person be if they don't take care enough to at least make themselves look presentable?

Looking presentable has nothing to do with society's standards of beauty or whatever... it has to do with someone not being a complete ****ing slob. And I'm sorry but people who are so lazy they can't shave every other day at the very least are not as qualified (all things being equal) as people who take the 15-30 minutes a day it takes to look presentable.

You want to wear jeans and not shave? Get a job at a record store or something.

This isn't college. Employees have to look presentable because they represent the company to the customers (whether that be consumers or other businesses). People don't like to buy things from slobs. I have a real problem with the notion that someone is qualified enough to provide a service or do a particular job if they can't even spend half an hour in the morning washing up.

In my experience managing people, the ones who looked like slobs worked like slobs. The ones who looked presentable were better workers.

[rah]

Originally posted by Sava
In my experience managing people, the ones who looked like slobs worked like slobs. The ones who looked presentable were better workers.

In general I agree, but some of my most creative people were sometimes a little on the slob side.
But if you stand up 100 slobs, maybe only one or two would be creative enough to want to hire. Finding that one or two out of the hundred would be damn near impossible so it's not worth the risk.

The only slobs I hire or those that I've been familiar with for a considerable length of time so I'm aware of their skills and don't hold their looks against them.

[Sava]

Originally posted by rah


In general I agree, but some of my most creative people were sometimes a little on the slob side.
But if you stand up 100 slobs, maybe only one or two would be creative enough to want to hire. Finding that one or two out of the hundred would be damn near impossible so it's not worth the risk.

The only slobs I hire or those that I've been familiar with for a considerable length of time so I'm aware of their skills and don't hold their looks against them.

There wasn't too much room for creativity at Pizza Hut.

And I'm not saying that there aren't savants out there who are a bit disheveled, but those people are rare. And even so, I don't see why it should be tolerated. It's not like I'm talking about strict standards here. Just don't come to work looking like a complete slob, that's all. I have to think that even someone who is extremely creative and bright would function much better with a little structure. I'm not talking about forcing anyone to comply with strict standards. But having a minimum set of requirements is not unreasonable.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by rah


In general I agree, but some of my most creative people were sometimes a little on the slob side.
But if you stand up 100 slobs, maybe only one or two would be creative enough to want to hire. Finding that one or two out of the hundred would be damn near impossible so it's not worth the risk.

The only slobs I hire or those that I've been familiar with for a considerable length of time so I'm aware of their skills and don't hold their looks against them.

If someone's a slob that can be ok, but you certainly don't want to hire a slob who's too stupid or lazy to make the small effort required to tidy up for an interview.

[rah]

Originally posted by Sava


There wasn't too much room for creativity at Pizza Hut.

Yep, have to go with you on that one.

My staff is programmers, developers and technicians, so I'm a little more used to having psycho, anti-social slobs around.

[Sava]

Originally posted by rah
so I'm a little more used to having psycho, anti-social slobs around.

Is that why modding the forums here seems to come so naturally to you?

[rah]

Yep.
Early in my career I was promoted to head geek because I could actually communicate with the regular world.

[MikeH]

You hide it well on here.

[rah]

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Yeah. Looking like a homeless person couldn't possibly have anything to do with him not getting a job.

No matter how cleaned up you look, you don't start getting job offers flooding in just for shaving and putting on a suit.