Since Thursday's presidential debate, Joe the Plumber is the most Googled name. But, girls, don't you think Josephine the Plumber should have equal time? Oh, you younger women don't remember her, do you? Read more.
Soapbox Saturday: Saying "Hello" Is A Simple Courtesy
I’d like to start a revolution in saying hello. A simple, hello.Religious wars…I understand why you might fight for your god, as backwards and undeniably ludicrous as it is, I get it. Road rage…remotely conceivable. But, not saying “hello” to someone on the sidewalk? I just don’t understand it. It’s heart-breakingly baffling to me.
Beautynomics: Sagging Economy and Sagging Hips
According to USA Today, 53 percent of plastic surgeons say business has slowed, gym memberships fell last year for the first time in more than a decade, and the Jenny Craig diet program is down by 30 to 40 percent since the first of the year.
Girl-Woman-Beauty-Brains-Blog Asks, "What is Beauty?"
Girl-Woman-Beauty-Brains-Blog was designed to not only inform women but to make women think. Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy -- the philosophy of art and beauty. But what is beauty?
Aristotle's said, "Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference."
Do you agree or disagree?
Beckie: Although I totally disagree with the concept, there is much to support Aristotle's quote. In a recent Wall Street Journal article that inspired my post, Botox for the Resume, a 49-year-old woman took ten years off her resume and had youthful pictures taken in order to get a job. The article exposed many other educated women who were resorting to cosmetic procedures and lying about their age in order to gain employment.
Jamie: The stark reality of the job market and career building is that employers want vibrant, young, innovative people as part of their team.
Soapbox Saturday: Botox for the Resume
It's Saturday, and I'm on my soapbox again! Today's conniption fit comes from an article in the Wall Street Journal about a 49-year-old woman who took ten years off her resume and had youthful pictures taken in order to get a job. Are women over 40 required to have Botox in order to get a job?
At age 49, Lisa Johnson Mandell (woman shown in picture above) found her career "kind of sputtering." After 20-plus years as an entertainment broadcaster and film reviewer, she began to see jobs she applied for going to people she knew were younger. "I kept thinking, 'There has got to be someone out there who will value my experience,'" she says.
Her husband, Jim Mandell, president of a Hollywood voiceover agency, told her frankly, "People are rejecting you out of hand because you are too old."
The competition for jobs can seem age-biased in our youth-obsessed culture. Today's economic slump has hit just as legions of new college graduates reach the job market. Employers are eager to fill their offices with youthful energy and technological savvy, as well as the openness to new ideas that also makes 18- to 34-year-olds so tantalizing to advertisers. Our culture is so spellbound by youth that even some people in their early 40s think they've aged out of the fast lane and feel pressure to remove the years surgically.
But is employers' apparent preference for youth really about wrinkles? Or do companies simply want workers who keep pace with the times?
Many mature job candidates rest on their laurels and fail to create a modern image, says Maxine Martens, chief executive of the executive-recruitment agency Martens & Heads in New York. Looking young isn't the key: Attitude and knowledge of today's world are just as important. "It's your job to stay contemporary," she tells
candidates. Ms. Martens, who is 60, founded her company after being fired from a recruiting job at age 54. She sometimes sends candidates to her hairstylist for an updated style, but she also suggests they try new gigs as fearlessly as they did in the past.
Read the rest of the article.
Do you think younger women are more marketable? Do you need to shoot yourself up with Botox to compete with younger women? Who would have thought that experience would be a liability in today's market?
I will get you started.
I'm not going to blow a gasket over this, because women do have the power to market themselves. I believe wholeheartedly that we need to stay current with the times -- take computer classes to stay ahead of the curve -- and I also know, unfortunate as it may be, we are judged by how we dress and look.
Having said that, I recently felt the sting of what I like to call "young/cute" discrimination. I had been a court reporter for a quarter of a century and had an attorney ask, "Where is that young, cute court reporter from last week?"
What the attorney soon learned was that the inexperienced but young and cute court reporter couldn't write 250 words a minute or keep up with three attorneys talking at the same time, and eventually, my attorneys/clients requested my services.
In the end, experience trumps youth and cuteness...but the idea that an experienced woman would have to have Botox or lie on her resume still puts a bee in my bonnet!
Your turn. What are you buzzing about?
Source: Wall Street Journal: Botox For The Résumé: One Woman's Makeover