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Comment by mn321x | Hacker News Reader

I wonder much success an overweight, typically bearded engineer would have with the same cold emails? Surely the appeal of meeting an attractive brunette must have helped?

Yes I'm cynical, but good looks have been found to have a significant influence on success at interviews.

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The email doesn't contain the headshot. I'm betting most people don't research me, but they do research the link in my emails.

However, if thats the only type of person your clientele will talk to, theN hire a smart, driven brunette, or blonde or a guy who walks some other part that fits the role.

She has a Google+ page with a headshot that will be shown next to her email when using gmail.

As someone who lost ~60 lbs. in the last year it's quite shocking how much of a difference it makes. Not closing deals mind you, but getting your foot in the door. (which is 50% of the battle anyways)

That would certainly make an interesting A/B test. "Attractive brunette" might be such a radioactive phrase that I shouldn't even be commenting, but I'm sure there are differences between picture vs. no picture, young vs. old, light skin vs. dark, and so on. The only question is how large or consistent those differences are, and the only way to get an answer is to measure.

As an example of playing this the opposite way "The Practice of System and Network Administration", first ed. has a story about a woman in pink coverall that get everybodys respect.

The reason: everybody figures out if you can get away with that you have to have pretty amazing techical skills.

(Haven't come around to the second edition yet but the first edition follows me. Covers everything from cabling and datacenter layout to hiring, firing and salary negotiations.)

Presentation matters, whether it is the way you look (naturally), the way you dress, or the way you designed the documents you hand out.

It is like the introduction. It increases the number first approaches but not necessarily the number of closes.

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