The professional networking site LinkedIn has been achieving high levels of popularity in recent years, hitting an impressive 200 million members at the start of 2013. This has caused more job seekers and recent college graduates to create accounts on this website in order to put their qualifications on display.
While uploading a profile picture is optional, employers like to see that there is a real person behind the skills and work experience exhibited on each page. The user’s photo is an afterthought on LinkedIn, but there is one new online job recruitment service where your brilliant, smiling face is the main selling point of your resume.
BeautifulPeople.com, an online dating website, has expanded its offerings to employers looking to hire its attractive users. Job postings on the site will be exposed to BeautifulPeople.com’s 750,000 members whose attractiveness have been voted on by the service’s community (and those who sign up that are deemed less than desirable are booted off). While some just believe it to be yet another way to obtain employment and gather candidates in today’s world, there are others who find it quite…off-putting.
The Downfall of BeautifulPeople.com's Job Recruitment Site
Let’s start with the obvious: many find BeautifulPeople.com’s new service to be discriminatory. Prospective employees are being judged, very transparently, on their appearance, not their job qualifications. Some candidates might have killer work ethic and skills obtained only by the best and brightest, yet might not fall under the category of stereotypically good-looking. Would they be an asset to the company? Of course! Skilled people are hired because they can propel businesses forward, using their garnered qualifications to create new opportunities for themselves and their employers alike.
But, uh, are they pretty enough?
Benefits of BeautifulPeople.com's Job Recruitment Site
Believers in BeautifulPeople.com’s recruitment feature argue that attractiveness and an impressive skill set are not an “either/or” scenario. Applicants under any circumstance would not get called in for an interview if they were not qualified for the position. The only difference here is that the whole pool of applicants has endorsed gorgeousness.
Some employers also defend their decision to siphon off less attractive-yet-qualified hopefuls, with the help of BeautifulPeople.com, because striking individuals give their businesses a better impression to prospective clients. In some industries, they argue, this is more necessary than others.
Is BeautifulPeople.com's Job Recruitment Site Right For You?
How do the members feel about being judged on their looks? My assumption is that, as members of a website called BeautifulPeople.com, they very much embrace it. But does this make it okay? There are obviously very clear ethical issues involved with hiring based on attractiveness, such as the fact that it is a form of discrimination. While not mentioning this type specifically, the U.S. Department of Labor’s website points out that discriminatory hiring is indeed against the law in many aspects.
I suppose that each company goes about its decision-making process a little differently when it comes to employment. Despite the mixture of positive vibes, neutral shoulder shrugs and disapproving sideways glances towards this new idea, this “attractive people only” employment service is out there. However, whether you want to be that company that turns to BeautifulPeople.com for new workers is up to you.
Check out BeautifulPeople.com and see for yourself.