Nokyoung Xayasane
Nokyoung
Xayasane
June 03, 2013

New Job Site Launches, and It’s for Beautiful People Only


Looking for a job? If you’re fresh out of college and looking to find your first career, you’re probably trying to amp up your resume, get the best references you can and improve your communication skills.

Bad news: If you’re not beautiful, you don’t have a Popsicle’s chance in hell of getting hired. Well, that’s the mindset of the new job site created by the folks at dating site BeautifulPeople.com, which was launched today.

You may remember BeautifulPeople.com as the exclusive online dating site that only allows attractive people to submit a profile. The dating candidates are voted in by existing members of the opposite sex. The more votes in favor of the person’s attractiveness, the more likely they’ll be allowed membership on the site.

Well, now these so-called beautiful people are taking their judgeyness into the corporate world by letting employers peruse their site for good-looking hires.

“BeautifulPeople’s recruitment service makes it easy for businesses to secure attractive personable employees to give your business that competitive edge,” reads the site.

“The members of BeautifulPeople.com offer a wealth of skills, qualifications and expertise with the added bonus that they all look fantastic.”

It’s basically the superficial version of LinkedIn. The site allows employers access to over 750,000 profiles of hot candidates.

“An honest employer will tell you that it pays to hire good-looking staff,” says Greg Hodge, Managing Director of the site. “Attractive people tend to make a better first impression on clients, win more business and earn more.”

And if you’re thinking of bothering the uber attractive members, be warned: “This isn’t an invitation for crackpots to come and ogle our beautiful members,” adds Hodge.

Right, because that’s the main concern here. Don’t feed or molest the beautiful people in this zoo of a website.

I understand first impressions are important in the hiring process. If someone makes the effort to run a comb through their hair and put on a pair of pants for an interview, that’s a good thing, but recruiting people through such a superficial lens says so much about a company and about the “beautiful” hire. They’re holding up a sign that says, “Ugly people not wanted and not worthy.”

And when I say “ugly,” I’m talking about the people who weren’t lucky enough to make it past the site’s narrow perspective on what makes someone attractive.

By creating a site that allows employers to recruit people via a “hot or not” scale, they’re perpetuating harmful beauty norms and making it explicit that hotness trumps qualifications.

Don’t tell me anyone’s buying this. Would you work for a company that uses this service? Let me know.