NJ.com
In this dog-eat-dog job market, wrinkles can be costly. Lou Capolino, an out-of-work sales executive, said he got passed up for several positions before he opted to have a plastic surgeon remove the telltale signs of age around his neck and eyes.
For Capolino, the surgery was as much a part of his job-searching strategy as the resume he had crafted so carefully to boast of his management experience.
"I'm a man of about 60. I'm competing against people who are younger, and I'm being interviewed by people who are younger," Capolino said. "I don't tell my age for fear of turning employers off."
As they compete against candidates who are younger by a decade or more, some seasoned job-seekers like Capolino are resorting to surgery to tighten jowls and erase wrinkles and frown lines wrought by age -- and formerly demanding careers.
"People who never thought they would ever have fillers (to treat frown and worry lines) are coming in for Botox injections or laser treatments," said Valerie Ablaza, a plastic surgeon in Montclair. "They're looking for any little thing that will give them an edge."
Companies struggling with the recession are slashing hundreds of jobs, and older, experienced workers aren't immune from the massive cuts. In the past year, the number of workers over the age of 55 who lost their jobs rose 2.8 percent. The number of unemployed workers between the ages of 45 and 54 increased 3.1 percent since last March.
For all those middle-aged workers, job-hunting can be an intimidating prospect. After all, they're competing against hundreds of other candidates, many much younger. Additionally, they are seeking higher salaries, which makes them more expensive in the job market. They're also older-looking, which can undermine their self-confidence.
Capolino, who has been out of work for more than a year, said he was rattled by the perception of some of the people he interviewed with for management positions.
"They saw me as someone too old to energize their company. It was so far from the truth, it hurt," Capolino said. "One of my biggest skills is my ability to mentor people and to motivate them."
To help level the job-searching field, Manhattan plastic surgeon Stephen Greenberg started offering special "tune-ups" for unemployed workers who found themselves competing against younger candidates."I realized what was going on in the job market and realized we had to address it in some way," Greenberg said.
The surgeon said the benefits for his customers are two-fold: They look younger, but perhaps more important is the changed attitude they take into a job interview.
"People may have the qualifications and the skills," Greenberg said, "but a big part of this is giving them the confidence."
Typically, boosting a person's confidence involves some of the quickest cosmetic procedures, such as treatments to fill, or temporarily erase, wrinkles, lines and other imperfections. Some patients may want skin-tightening -- "a little more involved, but still quick," Greenberg said.
If more work is involved, Greenberg might suggest a mini face-lift to tighten jowls, necks and faces or an eyelid lift to alter another telltale sign of aging, the baggy folds that form over the eyes. "These are surgical quick-fixes that rejuvenate a person," he said.
One 51-year-old Morris County woman, who asked to remain anonymous because she is actively looking for a job, said confidence and self-esteem do help "in this day and age and in this job market."
An accountant who lost her job in a restructuring earlier this year, the woman said she started getting Botox and laser treatments about five years ago and they've become as routine as getting her hair styled. Even after she lost her job, the plastic surgeon wasn't something she was willing to cut from her budget.
She isn't concerned only about how she stacks up against other job candidates, she's also concerned about the impression she makes at networking events, where she is often older than the majority of the crowd.
"Looking good helps me to keep a positive outlook," she said, "and that shows through to potential employers," she said. "The way you look helps you feel good about yourself."
Karen Vito, who does marketing for a Long Island-based spa and salon chain, went on several interviews where she found herself competing against younger women -- and losing the jobs to them. In each of the positions, she would have been the public face for the companies, which are considered part of the beauty industry.
"I found out who the jobs were going to, and to me, it was ridiculous," she said, "I really felt it might have had something to do with the way I looked. I thought, well maybe I am too old."
Vito, who is 43, went to see Greenberg, the New York City plastic surgeon, to find out what he could do for her. Ultimately, she agreed to have about $3,500 worth of noninvasive work done to erase the creases on her forehead and the folds around her mouth. Greenberg also removed fine lines along her upper lip, left by years of cigarette-smoking.
Within three weeks of having the work done, Vito said she landed her current job.
"I do look much younger. I definitely chalked it up to feeling better about myself and having more confidence," she said. "Maybe that gave me the edge."
Ablaza said some of the patients coming into her office for consultations are women in their 50s and 60s who are looking for work after their husbands have lost jobs or their retirement funds have shrunk dramatically in the past year.
"It's an age when they might think about getting a facelift, but they want it to be a smooth, natural transition," she said. "They often decide to get more subtle changes, like eyelid surgery."
Men also are among the job-seekers going to Brian Glatt, a plastic surgeon in Morristown.
"There's been a slow-growing acceptance for men to do it," Glatt said. "They just don't talk about it as openly as women."
But Paul Carniol, a plastic surgeon in Summit, said men are still apt to get a haircut or a shoe shine before they contemplate cosmetic changes. The job-seeker patients he's seen recently are largely women, many of whom who are requesting procedures to remove wrinkles and restore volume, which gives their face a younger appearance.
"The middle-aged realize they're at a disadvantage," Carniol said. "They want to look their best if they're going for an interview, so they come in asking for some Botox, something easy, something affordable."
"They may feel better about themselves," he said. "They may interview better."
No comments:
Post a Comment