Q: In light of the recent student career fair, I’ve started to consider my approach to a successful job interview. I have a facial piercing and I was wondering how big an issue this is. How do you know which piercings are inappropriate for a professional interview? Are there any ways around this? I really don’t want to take my piercing out for good and risk it closing up.
A:I don’t want to sound like a square, but the reality is, unless you want to jeopardize your professional options, sometimes you do have to take your potentially offensive appearance into consideration. Again, this isn’t to say I don’t appreciate body art; I currently have my eyebrow pierced and have experimented with a couple of others, as well. But on a college campus especially, it’s easy to forget piercings aren’t as commonplace as in the professional world. (When Curious Tattoo is practically next door to The Thirsty Turtle, there are bound to be people inadvertently getting piercings just around
happy hour). Just imagine, however, working at the front desk of a law firm and a nice old woman (we’ll call her Mrs. Duffy McWaldorfvanderbilton) comes in to draft her final will and testament. It’s doubtful she’ll appreciate the glare coming off of your metal encrusted face. As backward and warped as it may seem in this progressive day and age, she might very well take her business elsewhere, which is something your employers would have taken into consideration before hiring you.
Depending on the piercing and the job interview, there are different levels of transgressing the sacredness of the workplace. If you show up to an interview with a teeny diamond stud in your nose and an otherwise classy business-casual ensemble, it probably won’t be a deal breaker. Even in that case, though, I would suggest making sure the rest of your outfit is fit for Sarah Palin. The truth is that the cooler the piercing, the less likely it is to be exposed on a daily basis, but even the more serious facial piercings might warrant some crafty concealing.
Piercings around your mouth close up very fast, so even taking it out for a couple of hours is risky. You can easily buy plastic retainers, which are just clear plastic versions of whatever ring you have in, but they can get a little pricey. Another issue I’ve run across with those is they’re quite thick, so you might have a hard time switching it out, especially if your piercing is relatively new. I have friends who are fans of the ol’ Band-Aid trick, but I think even that is a little obvious. You know those plastic annoying bits that hold price tags on clothing? If you cut that to the size of your piercing, that will keep the hole from closing up for a few hours, and it’s virtually invisible. That’s the best thing I’ve come up with in a pinch … nice Jewish grandmothers don’t approve of their sons dating girls with holes in their faces.
So you can choose to take a stance for self-expression if you must, but your purple mohawk and zero-gauge septum ring will make you a less desirable candidate for a high-profile public relations firm than that other girl’s tidy bun and Return To Tiffany necklace. Maybe your edginess is misleading and your generous suburban parents are willing to support you while you fight to revolutionize the image of professional America as you let promising job opportunities pass you by. But if you actually live in the basement of a crusty punk commune, you should probably just suck it up and try to find another, less financially debilitating way to stick it to the man. Might I suggest vandalism?
Esti Frischling is a sophomore studio art major, so she literally has nothing better to do than answer your questions. She can be reached at estidbk@gmail.com.
