Henry Higgins has nothing on Lizandra Vega. Growing up in the Bronx, the child of Puerto Rican immigrants, Vega spent hours in front of the mirror, perfecting her English.
“I”™ve been there,” she writes.
And because she”™s been there and succeeded, she wants you to, as well. That”™s why she wrote “The Image of Success: Make a Great Impression and Land the Job You Want” (AMACOM, $16.95).
Vega knows what you”™re thinking: Here comes another variation on “Dress for Success,” the 1975 best-seller by John T. Molloy. Not so, the Briarcliff Manor resident says.
“There needed to be a book that housed everything in one area,” says Vega, co-founder and managing partner of the Manhattan staffing firm Perennial Resources International (PRI). “So many publications focus on dress for success. Appearance is so important. But we are three-dimensional. You may have the perfect resumé and not be able to talk about what”™s on that resumé.”
“The Image of Success,” then, is about the ABCs of making a good impression in today”™s thorny job market ”“ appearance, behavior and communication. Here”™s a sampling of Vega on all three:
Appearance: “What falls under the umbrella of ”˜doesn”™t fit our corporate culture”™? For women, sometimes it”™s a suit that”™s so skin-tight that it is bound to stop circulation. Other times, plump cleavage is peeking out like a pair of anxious puppies panting to be walked.”
Behavior: “A cocky strut is a hybrid of John Wayne meets Richard Gere in ”˜American Gigolo.”™ This walk insinuates that the enlarged crotch area is too large to walk with legs apart normally. It”™s forced and wannabe domineering ”“ and, all in all, overkill on an interview.”
Communication: “Paralanguage refers to vocalizations like whistling, snorting, giggling, and other fillers such as ”˜um,”™ ”˜uh”™ and ”˜ah,”™ which can greatly impede fluency during an interview.”
Vega practices what she preaches. She arrives on time for her interview at the Westchester County Business Journal and greets the reporter with a firm (but not bone-crushing) handshake, a steady gaze and a bright smile. She looks crisp and polished in a navy-blue ensemble with matching pumps, a complementary blue-and-white print scarf and a strand of pearls.
Her conversation is remarkably free of “um, like, you know” paralanguage. When asked a question, she pauses and tilts her head ”“ framed by a blunt-cut, chin-length hairdo ”“ slightly upward, which is what people do naturally when they”™re thinking.
If Vega talks the talk, it”™s because she”™s walked the walk. She was raised in the Bronx by parents who rode the No. 9 bus every day, regardless of weather or illness, to Montefiore Medical Center, where father Wilfredo worked for 33 years in the transportation department and mother Elsa for 20 years as a dietary aide. Though her parents wore uniforms, Vega writes, “these were always freshly laundered, neatly pressed, and paired with expertly polished shoes.”
Vega was their only child by choice. Others have shriveled in such a hothouse environment. Vega blossomed.
“I always seemed to meet their expectations,” she says.
Indeed, she went on to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., where she majored in theater and English and where she was a speaker recently during commencement week. After graduation, she parlayed her degree into a stint as a member of the Spanish Repertory Theatre in New York City. From there she drew on the communications skills and confidence honed by her theatrical background ”“ with its emphasis on makeup and costume design as well as performing ”“ to land a position with the staffing firm she went to for job placement. In 2003, she co-founded Perennial Resources International, where she has coached thousands of job candidates.
Vega is well-aware that her focus on image is not without controversy. Some critics worry about the emphasis on image at the possible expense of the inner life. Many Latinos bristle at the notion of eradicating their native, Spanish-inflected accents.
But for the bilingual Vega, the outward life is the path to an inner one. And though she treasures her Puerto Rican heritage ”“ she”™s off to an interview with a Spanish-language TV show afterward ”“ she is above all else a realist.
“Verbal communication is part of reality,” she says. “I felt (the accent) would be a roadblock for me. I saw it was a roadblock for my parents.”
She is equally clear-eyed about job prospects for college graduates in this still-tender economy: Administrative positions are going to newly matriculated students, who once landed mid- and higher-level jobs that are instead being given to veteran workers thrown back into the job market.
“It”™s a caste system,” she says.
That”™s why she”™s mystified by what she sees as the oblivious attitude of the young job- seekers.
“People are still thinking it”™s a candidate”™s market,” she says. “This is a year in which a lot of graduates don”™t have anything under their belts. They”™re not being flexible, because they are naïve. They haven”™t been hit with the numbers.”
The failure to reinvent oneself for today”™s market is one of the mistakes job-hunters make. Another is the neglect of the follow-up thank-you that brings closure to an interview. The note should be written on white or cream-colored paper of good stock within 24 hours. (You can even do it after the interview and hand it in then, Vega says.)
The thank-you should refer to some aspect of the job discussed and reiterate your interest in the position. While it can be an email, followed by an actual note, it should never be a voice-mail, Vega says.
Still, the woman who was reared and trained on finishing touches is not without her foibles. Her book does, after all, advocate the use of orange in dress ”“ as an accent color.
The hue of prison jumpsuits and pumpkins? What would Henry Higgins think?
