Can A Job Recruiter Pass On You For Your Appearance? A Viral TikTok Has People Fuming.

Many of us never know why we did not get the job after nailing an interview. But Melissa Weaver, a New York City-based human resources professional, recently got unusually direct feedback as to why she lost a job opportunity — because of her “appearance.”

Weaver has been job hunting since January. In mid-March, she did a Zoom interview she thought went well for a vice president of human resources position. But a few days later, Weaver was disappointed to learn she would not be moving forward to the next stage.

When Weaver asked the job recruiter for feedback about why, the recruiter wrote back in an email reviewed by HuffPost that she “was concerned that you didn’t put forth enough effort into your appearance given you were interviewing for a vice president role.”

Weaver said she was “baffled” by this feedback.

She had blown out her hair and donned a freshly ironed blazer, collared shirt and earrings for her video interview. The only thing she had not done? Put on makeup.

“I just kind of stared at [the email],” she told HuffPost. “And then I sort of thought, ‘Well, I don’t think it’s that important, but maybe am I wrong? Is it expected for women to wear makeup in the workforce?’”

Assuming that the recruiter passed on her due to a lack of makeup, Weaver posed a question on TikTok: “Does not wearing makeup for women to job interviews or to jobs make it seem like they aren’t putting in as much effort or care into their job?”

In response, she got thousands of comments from people who could relate to the experience of having their appearance scrutinized at work.

“I have been told, ‘You look nice, you put on makeup.’ People see it as not trying if you don’t wear makeup,” one commenter wrote, while another noted that