Curb appeal

Reader question:

Please explain “curb appeal” in the following:

When interviewing a potential cashier, resist the inclination to hire the pretty girl that won’t look you in the eye and mumbles just because she has curb appeal. Better to hire the person that is willing to look the customer in the eye, smile, invite them to experience the benefits of a clear coat arch and thank them for their business.

My comments:

She who has curb appeal is pretty looking, attractive at first sight.

In other words, she gives a you a good first impression, which can be deceiving.

Curb appeal is originally a term used by people in the real estate business, or by buyers and sellers of houses.

Curb is American spelling for the British “kerb” in the street separating the lanes for motor vehicles from the sidewalk for pedestrians. If a house has curb appeal, it means it looks good from the street, or from the sidewalk.

For a house, curb appeal, or first impression, is important. “The decision whether to look inside a house is usually based on a quick drive-by assessment. If a house has curb appeal, say realtors, buyers are more likely to want a look inside the house (Create a great first impression, HouseHunting.ca, November 30, 2007). In other words, if a house isn’t good looking from the outside, potential buyers won’t even bother to take a walk inside.

First impressions, however, can be deceiving. As most house sellers understand the importance of curb appeal as well, they, for example, will whitewash the walls, mow the lawn, trim the roses, so on and so forth just before putting their house up for sale. And if you are overwhelmed by the house’s curb appeal, or how beautiful it looks from outside, you may overlook the fact that it has only one bathroom. You have always been looking for a second bathroom (for guests) but, in your enthusiasm, have forgotten about it altogether when you put pen to paper and signed the contract. You’ll regret this, of course, henceforth.

To sum up, curb appeal is important. When facing someone/something with curb appeal, however, curb your enthusiasm.

Here are two media examples:

1. When it comes to reputation, is media studies the BP of the degree world?

Regularly berated — after all Cambridge University once branded the subject a ‘soft’ option — and dismissed as a Mickey Mouse degree, media studies just doesn’t have the curb appeal of a ‘traditional’ science subject or a ‘solid’ law degree.

Frustrating, of course, for the 5,160 people who started studying for this qualification last year — yet, for all the bad press it gets, it seems graduates from this subject are proving the naysayers wrong as they use their qualifications to pursue a wide range of successful careers.

After all, such courses have helped produce the likes of former Channel 4 chief executive Michael Jackson, Sunday Times editor John Witherow and Blue Peter presenter Andy Akinwolere.

And many grads have followed Witherow’s lead — journalism is a popular career option for those who have been studying the media in depth during their studies, with skills in areas such as radio and video highly valued by media organizations looking at reaching internet audiences, according to a Guardian Money piece which looked at the career options for those with a degree in media studies.

So, if you have a media studies degree — or perhaps you are currently studying for one — we've assembled a panel of experts to answer all your questions about the wide range of options available to you.

- Live Q&A: What can I do with a media studies degree? Guardian.co.uk, August 18, 2010.

2. I’ve been watching all of those shows where people have been trying to sell their homes and can’t. So, they bring in a real estate expert to find out why. The answer always involves curb-appeal and staging.

Does your resume have curb-appeal and is it staged properly? You’ve probably never thought of your resume like that, but you should. Selling a house is a lot like selling a candidate to a prospective employer. The candidate's resume needs to have curb-appeal and must be properly staged.

Curb-appeal is the first thing a buyer sees. In real estate, it is how the house looks when the prospective buyer sees it for the first time. It’s the first impression. Within the first 10-20 seconds of seeing your resume, the hiring manager or recruiter gets a first impression and makes a decision whether you are likely to be a qualified candidate for the position. It’s a “10 second test” that your resume must pass in order to be fully considered. As a recruiter I see dozens and dozens of resumes each day and I make decisions on each resume. For example, this one is qualified and I need to read further, this one is not qualified, this one needs to just go into my database, or this one is not good enough for my database. Your resume has to pass the “10 second test” if you want to get the job interview.

When the hiring manager looks at your resume, it is usually in MSWORD. They open it and see the top-half of the first page. This is where curb-appeal and staging are important. In order to pass the “10 second test” your resume needs staging. Staging your resume is like arranging and decorating a room. In this case, it is only the top-half of the first page. It is the only room that can pass the “10 second test”. They’ll never get to the other rooms in your resume if they walk out in the foyer.

Here are some things to do when staging your resume:

1. Put in your complete contact info at the top including an e-mail address and all phone numbers (they might actually want to contact you to setup an interview). Include your degree after your name. If you have a Master’s or a PhD, tell them here in the first 10 seconds.

2. The very next thing on your resume should be the SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS. This is the most important section of your resume and it needs to pass the “10 second test”. It’s make or break right here, right now!

- How to stage your resume, by Steven J Pruner, CyberDivan.com.