Performing Employability: The Job Interview as Aesthetic Labor

• In Event: 1184 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 19. Employment and Job Searching

Abstract

This paper uses the concept of aesthetic labor to frame an investigation into employability as it is taught in Job Readiness Training. I argue that displaying employability is a performance that takes place in the job interview. Job Readiness Training is a social service intervention that addresses unemployment by training job seekers in how to get a job. It is generally a short-term course that instructs job seekers in résumé-writing, interview skills, and job search methods, with a heavy focus on interviewing. Previous literature on Job Readiness Training examines the practice in broad, abstract terms. Participant observation and interviews provide a foundation on which to interrogate the specific practices that are being taught and consider their implications for understanding the nuances of employability. I argue that the aesthetic labor of displaying employability takes place in body language, clothing, and the way that participants make sense of their lives. In other words, it has embodied and cognitive aspects. This multifaceted display of employability requires significant work from job seekers. Furthermore, the image of the idea worker whom job seekers should embody and represent is embedded with raced and gendered norms. The requirement to display employability is, therefore, implicated in creating and denying opportunities for employment, and ultimately in the reproduction of labor market inequalities.

Author

• Sara Chaganti, Brandeis University