Nov 28, 2016
With engagement season fast approaching, the Mac's List team (Publisher, Mac Prichard; Managing Director, Ben Forstag; and Community Manager, Jenna Forstrom) sat down to talk about Bruce Hurwitz's LinkedIn post, "When interviewing for a job, lose the ring!"
This article was published on August 12, 2016, and caused a bit of media frenzy with over 1,403 comments and 1,020 shares. Hurwitz specifically calls out women who wear large engagement rings as being "high maintenance" and thus hiring managers aren't willing to give them a job offer. Mac Prichard makes a good point that it's illegal to make hiring decisions based on marital status. While it's hard to prove that this is happening, chances are, if you are interviewing for a job that has some questionable hiring practices, you wouldn't want to work there anyways. Ben chimes in that some hiring managers might see a wedding ring on a young woman's hand and assume that they are going to leave the job to raise a family or need time off for maternity leave. Jenna adds that there are some places, like in food service, where no jewelry is allowed, in that case, it's not worth wearing a ring. Mac continues the conversation by pointing out that visibly pregnant women also struggle finding employment for similar reasons.
Discrimination is real when it comes to job hunting, but the data points to it being more of a gender issue versus an engagement issue. What has your experience been? Have you ever felt like wearing an engagement ring has hindered your chances of getting a job? Leave a comment below.
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Opening and closing music for Find Your Dream Job provided by Freddy Trujillo, www.freddytrujillo.com.