Women Helped to Gain Image That Fits the Job

She was a secretary in her mid-50s with excellent skills but an appearance “that wouldn’t inspire much confidence,” recalls Trisha Goodwin.

“She looked like she stepped out of a small town. Her makeup was wrong and she had no style,” says Goodwin, the temporary help division manager for Baker Personnel, an Upland job placement firm.

Goodwin arranged for the woman to have a complete make-over, with a new, “more bouncy” hair style and a business suit. “She was so excited with her new look,” says Goodwin. “She got the job--and her husband loved her.”

Goodwin says Baker has offered what it calls image counseling to job-seekers since last October, after it became apparent that many women needed advice on what to wear in the office. About 50% of the women who come to Baker for jobs need advice about their appearance, says Goodwin. Most of them are older women who haven’t worked for some time, or are college grads who never had to dress for work before.

“We want to make people aware of the impression they give. If you want to be an executive secretary, you have to look the part,” says Goodwin. Goodwin says Baker assists job-seekers who refuse Baker’s appearance tips, but “if they look better, they have more choices. We might place them in a different situation. They might not get that high-level job.”