By Chelsea Garrity | Observer Contributor
Body modifications, also known as body alterations, are prevalent among the students on the MWCC campus. This includes everything from nose piercings, gauged ears, and tattoos. College is a time where students get their sense of self and experiment with their natural rights of self expression. Yet college is also a time to develop your skills to eventually get a long time job. Will these experimental times limit us in achieving our future career goals? It all depends on the goal.
“It’s all about knowing your target,” says Patricia J. Brewerton, the Coordinator of Career Planning & Placement. From her experience, the students getting into the more artistic careers have more opportunity to self express. She still recommends that you go into the interview with nothing distracting on your face or neck. “You want them to be looking at you and listening to you. You don’t need any flashy distractions that limit your opportunity.” You can go in clean and polished and then evaluate the other employees to gauge what’s acceptable for your own appearance. Brewerton adds, “And nobody is MAKING you do anything. If you don’t want to take out your face jewelry, or cover up your tattoos, then don’t. But you need to figure out if the job is important to you and why. And if your self expression is really important, then you need to find a career that is accepting of that as well.” She believes you should do what you want in this world even if that means you have to work 10 times harder to prove yourself.
FLEXcon in Spencer is a company that has production, lab, and office employees. Each area has its own expectations when it comes to dress and appearance. In FLEXcon’s Corporate Policy under the Dress Code section, it states, “Employees in public facing positions should not have visible tattoos or piercings (other than conventional piercing on earlobes).” This is the only mention of body modification restrictions in the policy. In other words, if you are not working with the customers that come in, you have more freedom to have visible alterations.
However, all of the employees that were sampled stated that they were sure to cover up any tattoos and remove any facial jewelry during the interview process. “Once I was hired I kinda tested the pack. I evaluated what everybody else was wearing and doing. Then I decided it was safe to roll up my sleeves. But only in the office,” stated a recent hire. “I know that the policy states earlobe jewelry only. But I have multiple other ear jewelry and I work with customers. I don’t see this as a problem and I am not taking them out,” said Emily Allard, Marketing Assistant at the company. There are some gray areas about what’s acceptable and what is not. It all depends on if your managers enforce the policy or not.
That is just corporate procedure; however, art careers seem to have more opportunity to express. “I have both sides of my nose pierced and had my ears gauged. I never had an issue when it comes to getting jobs or commissions. People almost expect this from art professionals. They want creative people. It is acceptable,” explained Derek Taylor, current student of New Hampshire Institute of Art. He also has a job with the town of Acton, working in the summers as a landscaper. “The guys give me crap but I don’t care. I still got hired and I am a hard worker. Nothing on my face can change that.”
Body modifications, whether a trend or an ongoing experiment, are at the fore front of today’s society. When it comes to getting a job you need to decide how important your alterations are and weigh that against how important getting/ accepting the position would be.
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