new thread
Hello there everybody,
I barely discovered the site a couple of days ago and this is my first post in the dicussion board (in ANY discussion board for that matter).
I will be finishing up a Ph.D. in food science shortly and will start looking for a job pretty soon. My hair is maybe a little lower than mid-back (elbow length, I get somewhat confused with the references to length) and my first degree was in chemical engineering and prior to graduate studies I worked in a very large multinational, but back then I didn't have this hair length whatsoever, it was layered and just below the collar.
Now, before finding this site, I had planned to cut it off as I will start with interviews sometime early next year. But in relating to what some of you guys have "said" very honestly and openly (at least it seems to me) about your own hair and what it means to you, I'm starting to decide that I will not cut it off (maybe just a trim, as I like it to look cared for, clean and relatively neat). I realised that my hair is part of me, and, at least for now, it is valuable to me it makes me feel happy about myself! In any event, I find the discussion very enriching and encouraging.
Now for the actual question. Could some of you "talk" about your experiences on interviews? What is it the interviewer ask about your long hair? What have you responded? Has it worked? What does the interviewer want to really know? Did it seem to you in the interview that the only thing between you and the job was your hair length? Any recommendations? Any other long haired engineers out there? Comments will be greatly appreciated at least to help me prepare psycologicaly and to share for other, of course.
Sergio
Don't cut it! I'm glad for your sake you found this site!
I have one experience in this vein, and it was a very positive one, in which most of the questions you posed were answered in a very positive way.
At the time I had slightly longish hair, a long beard, and I wore blue jeans all the time. What I was asked was about "my appearance", but I feel the same results would have obtained, whether the issue was long hair length, OR my beard, slightly long hair, and jeans.
They asked me, "Why do you look like that?" I responded that, "Some people feel more strongly about their appearance than do most people, and I am one of those people. There are some guys here in San Francisco who would like to wear a dress, for example, and though I am not one of those people, I feel just as strongly about MY appearance as such people must feel."
They then asked me if I would change my appearance if I went to work there, and I said, "No. This is what I look like."
Their next statement was, "We would be concerned about what our clients would think." I replied, "I have been doing engineering work for ten years with no problem. What I have learned is that after the first five minutes clients care little about what you look like. What they care about is that you will take care of their concerns when they call, and that you will design things that work."
They then named a prominent architectural firm that is particularly stuffy, and said they felt I would present a problem in working with such a client, and because the following was true, I said, "Well, I designed their own office, and as far as I know, they were pleased with my work." And thus ended the discussion. I was hired and worked for that firm for six years.
I do want to mention what happened in those six years, though. I realized I wanted my hair longer, and each time I tried to grow it out I got huge hassles from them about it. So the moral is, go in there with the long hair. DO NOT think you will get by with growing it later.
Good luck with your longhaired interviews!
I had a few problems when I had minimum wage jobs (food service, etc.) - but, just while people with no work experience who needs such jobs are easy to find, so are the jobs, and once you make it plain that yes, this is important, and you make every effort to keep it from affecting your job, they leave you alone (and this was in the mid-west).
After its gotten so long that people can see with one glance that a lot of time and care has gone into my hair, I haven't even been asked about it during an interview. This may be partially due to now being in the computer industry, where the length of my hair has absolutely no bearing on how well I can do my job.
Actually, my current job had two interviews (HR screening who to send to the dept. manager), and after the first one, the HR director called my now-manager to schedule an interview for me before I left, and after she set up a time, I got to hear her say "oh, and you will be absolutely amazed by his hair - it's longer than Jerry's." I now sit about 10 feet from Jerry, and she was right, my hair's at least a foot longer than his...
I will agree with this one wholeheartedly, though: while I've never had a problem with long hair at an interview, when I was growing my hair out, I swear I heard hints from my boss every week ("so... how long were you thinking of growing that...?" "hmm... have you had any problems with loose hairs everywhere?" "do you think it could become a problem when it's longer?"). Once it was long enough that it was obviously not going to be getting cut, and she still wasn't pleased, I just transfered to a different store, and had a boss who couldn't care less.
so no, do not cut your hair, especially if you hope to grow it out again.
-Coyote Pup
I have hair, all one length, cut in a straight line across the middle of my back. I am a sales rep who had worked for one company for eight years. I started growing my hair long while employeed by this company. Last Summer a better job opportunity arose that required an interview. It never occured to me that I should cut my hair. My hair has never been mentioned by anyone at the new company who hired me. I have since grown a walrus style mustache which has drawn way more comments than my hair ever has. I am not worried about hair discrimination and I am a salesman. I don't think you should worry about it either. Good luck with your job search.