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Science says beards mean jobs in the online employment search

If you’re of the bearded set, you’re probably aware of the intangible powers that facial hair holds. Now, according to Wired, we can add “asset for employment” to the list. That’s right, beards help you get jobs.

If you're of the bearded set, you're probably aware of the intangible powers that facial hair holds. Now, according to Wired, we can add "asset for employment" to the list. That's right, beards help you get jobs.

When online marketer Javier Sanz was tired of getting turned down or ignored for potential gigs, he decided to have some fun. Rather than inflating the language on his oDesk profile, or spicing up his LinkedIn, Sanz simply slapped a beard onto his avatar and waited. The logic, of course, being that "a beard would make him look older—and more trustworthy," writes Wired. 

Turns out it did. With the addition of his e-beard, Sanz counted a statistical significant uptick in responses to job openings as a now-bearded contractor. Wired explains further:

"When he inquired about job openings as a bearded freelancer, the response rate jumped from 12 percent to 35 percent."

So, in summation, Sanz response rate nearly tripled because of a beard that he doesn't even actually have. But, to be fair, Sanz is a technology freelancer, so the jobs he's looking for tend to be virtual. However, Sanz, as an SEO expert, is planning on expanding his beard technique to other similar online profile tweaks:

"Sanz specializes in online marketing, including search engine optimization, or SEO — the tricks that help you get your website noticed on the search engines run by Google and Microsoft. He believes that similar techniques will become increasingly important on new-age job markets like oDesk."

In the meantime, if any ladies want to test the beard trick and report back, we're all ears.

[Jezebel]