Who wins? Beauty or the Beast?

The idea for this post came to me earlier today as I slowly awakened from my slumber, that period of half sleep and wakefulness when your mind drifts onto any subject which is generally forgotten as the pressing matters of the day come to the fore. This morning, my mind drifted to and touched on an early part of my employment at that hated company I used to work for.

At the time, I had applied for an information technical specialist position that had been open for more than a year. The director of this department suggested that I apply for this job on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving that year. He mentioned that there was a pay increase to go with the job. I had hardly been working at this company a year at this time, so I said I would think about it and went home for the day. I thought it over that weekend and decided I wanted the position.

I had extensive background in the IT field before I joined this company for a "help desk" position. When they did the first interview, they warned me that this position had nothing to do with computers. Since the bills were mounting from when I graduated from college, I boldfacedly lied that it didn't concern me that this wasn't a position that dealt with computers.

Both the IT director and my supervisor knew that I had this background. So, when I applied the following Monday, they told me that the position had been taken by another guy from accounts payable. I was stunned. I knew that he had no experience whatsoever with computers. I told my supervisor how upset I was over this and that started a flurry of meetings that still amuses me to this day. They had meetings with me (that included the Operations director and the president of the company) to tell me that they chose him because he was more qualified and that he had applied first. However, I was still given full consideration before they hired the other guy. I should have quit right there. I had even written my resignation letter. A coworker barely convinced me to stay.

Now, I am not bad looking. However, I cannot deny that the guy they hired was model quality in appearance. Dark hair, strong jawline, great complexion, muscular and athletic build, etc. Girls at the company would take coffee breaks just to swoon at his desk. Older women draped themselves on him at company parties. He belonged in a magazine. He didn't belong in a small office room surrounded by computers all day.

Then came the day of reckoning. I was walking up the hallway, and both the IT director and the new "specialist" flagged me down to ask me a question on the network. They couldn't get connectivity to a new switch they had installed. They were at their wits end. They asked me to take a look at it and see if I could figure it out. I asked a couple of questions and in less than thirty seconds, I had resolved the issue. I took total satisfaction in their dumbfounded looks and walked out the door.

Too bad I didn't get the job. I might still be working there if I had. Now that the story telling is over, I was saying: As I woke up this morning, my mind wandered over that memory, I thought, "So beauty does win over the beast." The thought escaped me for a while and came back full force this afternoon while catching up on reading other blogs.

Perhaps we should all gouge out our eyes if we want to make this world a better place. I suppose the bitter lesson is: If you're dumber than a brick but look good pretending, you will get the job. And if you don't look like you belong on a Calvin Klein billboard, it doesn't matter what you know.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for a meritocracy, however, I have worked in places that don't rely upon the merits of someone's qualifications and this has most certainly embittered my perspective. Someday, I hope to work someplace where what I can do and bring to the table matters more than how I look.