Age Discrimination & Plastic Surgery

A recent Reuters article by Sarah McBride focused on what it calls Silicon Valley’s “dirty little secret”: age discrimination in the workplace. Among the people interviewed in the article was Randy Adams, a 60-year-old who has founded eight venture-backed companies, but who couldn’t seem to land a CEO job in Silicon Valley last year—until he shaved his (gray) hair and donned a pair of Converse shoes instead of his usual loafers, that is.

Adams is convinced that the only reason he got the job he has now (Chairman of Socialdial, a mobile conference-call company) is that he adopted a more youthful look before going in for his interview. These days, he’s wearing T-shirts instead of button-downs—and he got an eyelid lift, too, a procedure that he now endorses wholeheartedly as a way for older job candidates to make themselves more appealing.

This kind of makeover may sound extreme, and perhaps unnecessary, for people who just want a job (it’s not online dating, after all!)—but according to the many lawyers, employers, and job seekers interviewed for this piece, if you want to get a job at a tech company in the Bay Area these days, it’s pretty much par for the course. And that fact is “100 percent due to the new, young, tech start-up mindset,” says Cliff Palesky, a San Francisco employment attorney who says that it’s not just 60- and 70-year-olds who are having this issue—even men and women in their 40s have contacted him about age discrimination.

Is it wrong that employers are discriminating against potential employees based on age? Of course—and not only that, it’s illegal. But the reality is, it happens all the time . . . which means that in order for job seekers over 40 to have a fighting chance at the jobs they want, they have to find ways to overcome age bias obstacles. And for some, that’s going to mean plastic surgery.

If you think you look just fine the way you are, there’s no reason that you should undergo surgery to change your looks. If, however, there’s something you’d like to improve upon—and it’s going to help your chances of landing a new job—then you may want to consider getting that facelift or eye lift you’ve been considering before you start going out on interviews.

The upside? According to the results of a long-term study released in March of this year, most patients report overall increases in self-confidence, fulfillment, and general happiness after undergoing cosmetic plastic surgery. So you may end up with both a new job and a more positive outlook on life—not such a bad deal!

For more information about procedures that can make you look (and feel) more youthful, contact Dr. Usha Rajagopal at the San Francisco Plastic Surgery & Laser Center!