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Surviving Job Interviews From Hell
Relax, sometimes you’re actually too good for them.
A bizarre question popped up on a job forum I was reading a few years ago. “Can being too attractive hurt you on the market?”
The post described the harrowing tale of a young teacher’s recent campus visit. Women couldn’t take their eyes off him the whole time, and men regarded him with open hostility.
Yeah, it’s a hard knock life for attractive white guys.
But his story made me wonder. During the final interview, the department chair flat out asked him, “You know you can’t date students, right?” The chair went on to describe the sad singles market in the area.
A couple of faculty may have made passes at him.
Granted, a little weird.
Too attractive to find a job, though? Possible, not plausible. We’ve all heard of “overqualified,” but even that’s just a nice way of saying, “They won’t stick around for very long.”
The candidate’s question inspired a long thread. Most of the comments offered little insight. They just took aim at his vanity and overall arrogance. To some extent, he’d asked for it.
Still, I’ve reflected a lot on his experience — not just the possibility of being too “attractive,” but of…
