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A Nip, a Tuck, a New Job
Monday, December 23, 2002
The decision to undergo cosmetic surgery came easily to Julie
Quiram.
She's in the business of looking good, so she regarded surgery
to remove the wrinkles around her eyes as a necessary career move.
"In the cosmetics industry, everyone needs to be young and
beautiful," says Quiram, 42, a sales representative for a
cosmetics line. "It's taken 10 years off my (appearance).
I have the self-confidence to go out and be photographed at corporate
events and to go cold- calling."
In a year when broadcast journalist Greta Van Susteren graced
magazine covers dishing about her plastic surgery before her move
to the Fox News Channel, hers is no earth-shattering disclosure.
But Quiram's doctor, Janet Neigel, said she has seen a steady
increase in the number of patients who come to her to improve
their looks because of their job, or their search for a new job.
Lawyers. Corporate managers with early retirement packages. Men
and women.
"Before people would come in wanting to do surgery because
they were getting a divorce or unhappy with the way they look,"
Neigel said. They still do. "But now, I'm also seeing people
budgeting for getting downsized or worried about their jobs and
competing with younger people."
Laid off and looking for a new job, one of her patients had eyelift
surgery two years ago.
"I knew I would be leaving where I was and pursuing other
opportunities," said the former corporate human resources
executive in her 50s, who asked her name not be published. "Age
discrimination is definitely very apparent."
A 38-year-old equity trader with a heavy beard in a competitive
business that favors a neat, polished appearance signed up for
some laser hair-removal. "I had a five o'clock shadow at
9 in the morning," he said.
He, too, would rather his name not be in the newspaper. More
mid-career professionals may be including plastic surgery in their
business planning, but they're not ready to tell the world about
it. Or at least potential employers.
Of course, cosmetic surgery is an option only for people with
extra cash. Treatments range from about $500 for Botox injections
to ease eye and forehead wrinkling to about $3,000 for blepharoplasty,
the techincal term for eyelid surgery, Neigel said.
Is it a good option? The human- resources consultant said it
was the best thing she ever did for herself. But if our culture
-- particularly in the business world, where experience and smarts
should matter -- valued wisdom as much as youth, would plastic
surgery be considered a career-improvement decision?
In his list of "how to get a job after age 50 do's and don'ts"
Union career coach Don Sutaria recommends clients "minimize
wrinkles on your face and bags under your eyes," along with
weight control and hair advice: "Die hair to original color."
But Donna Gerhauser, a Scotch Plains-based career counselor and
vice president of the New Jersey Professional Coaches Association,
said cosmetic surgery has never come up in conversations with
her clients. She said a few corporate coaches at a holiday party
last week said none of their clients were considering nips, tucks
or Botox, either.
"My conversations with clients are more about lifestyle,
what makes them marketable and how they are going to be valuable,"
Gerhauser says. "At least 50 percent of the conversation
is about what am I willing and not willing to do in a work environment.
What are my priorities? How much time to I want for myself, my
family?"
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