How to Read LOOKING THE BUSINESS: How Your Appearance Affects Your Career PDF
We all want to believe that we’ll be recognised and rewarded for working hard and doing a good job, that appearance and fashion are just shallow indulgences and that our bright personalities and sharp wits will eclipse our dull attire and detract from the spinach between our teeth. Alas, not so. Three decades’ worth of psychological research suggests that, before we’ve even had time to say, ‘Hello, how are you?’, the people we meet have already started to form impressions about our likeability and competence. As their mouths work on a reply, their eyes take in more details about our appearance which are put through filters of bias and personal experience to build a fuller mental picture of our character and capabilities. Within a matter of minutes, they’ll have decided whether we are someone they’d like to work with, invest in, or learn from, and whether they’re interested in buying what we’re selling.First impressions are made spontaneously and effortlessly and they have a disturbing habit of being self-fulfilling. Only by understanding how and why these impressions are formed can we begin to view ourselves through the eyes of the decision-makers who influence our careers and make sure that we're sending them the right message.In this book, you’ll learn: • Why beauty is good for most working professionals but can be beastly for some • What modern physiognomy has to say about our career opportunities • How cosmetic enhancements make us look healthier and wealthier, but that discretion is the better part of glamour • Why it can be more important to want to lose weight than to actually lose it • Why our scientists tend to wear glasses, our coders tend to be youthful, and our leaders tend to be tall • How failing to meet other people’s appearance-based expectations can have real consequences for our careers, and what we can do about it
