Experts say that we live in a “visual society.” The first impression we get of someone is by his or her outer appearance; and for some new graduates with visible body piercing and tattoos, the outer layer will cause less than favorable interviewing results. Sometimes stripping those exterior “forms of expression,” for the sake of interviewing, can prove to be a smart move.
Think about the interview process as a stage. Anyone considering selling a home will stage the house so anyone visiting it can envision living there, so the same concept can apply to the meet and great portion of the hiring process. The stage isn’t necessarily the house at its finest, so the way you look on the day of the interview won’t be fully indicative of you, but it serves the purpose that it was designed to do.
Hiring managers need to see beyond your exterior and focus on the your skill set along with your possibilities. If the person with the power to hire you can’t get passed your personal appearance, then you’re taking a step back instead of forward. If you underwent an interview makeover, would you be dressed in grunge clothing, be given an eyebrow piercing, and told that ain’t is an underutilized word so put it into mainstream conversation — starting at the interview? If your employer wanted that, I suppose you could oblige, but generally, you’d be cleaned up and polished.