Employers participating in NACE’s Job Outlook 2006 survey were given a list of appearance-related attributes and asked to rate the degree of influence each would have on their opinion of a job candidate. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said a candidate’s grooming would have a strong influence on their opinion of the candidate, and nearly half cited nontraditional interview attire as exerting a strong influence. (See Figure 1.)

“These results are consistent with what we’ve seen in the past,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director. “Job candidates need to remember that their overall grooming and choice of interview attire project an image; they are marketing themselves to the employer as a potential employee, and part of marketing is the packaging.”

Interestingly, employers indicated that a candidate’s handshake is likely to have a greater influence on their opinion of a candidate than many other more obvious attributes, such as unusual hairstyles and colors, tattoos, and body piercings. However, that doesn’t give job candidates license to dye, tattoo, or pierce with abandon, cautions Mackes.

“It’s important for job seekers to recognize that attributes that exert even a slight influence over an employer can be just as important as those that exert a strong influence,” says Mackes. “When an employer has to make a choice among job candidates, these are the items that could make or break a candidacy.”