Female Banker Tells Oprah Getting Plastic Surgery Helped Her Career

Would you go under the knife to get ahead at work?

It turns out plastic surgery can not only be a boon for those in the, uh, exotic dancing industry: an anonymous 55-year-old female investment banker spilled to Oprah.com (and O Magazine last month) about how she paid for 10 cosmetic procedures to help her climb the corporate ladder.

10 procedures? Yikes. Here's a list:

• Liposuction
• Breast implants
• Nose job (twice; first one was botched)
• Ear pinning
• Eyes (not specified)
• Forehead lift
• Lip filler
• Lip surgery to repair botched filler job
• Tummy tuck
• Facelift
• Veneers

Eek! The number of botched surgeries alone is freaking us out.

And in what's perhaps the most depressing quote from the article: the woman says her career skyrocketed, post-procedures:

Not only did my romantic options explode, but my career instantly shifted into a higher gear. I was suddenly being courted by senior partners, included in meetings with the CEOs and CFOs of current and prospective clients. I thought, "Wait a minute -- I'm the same person I was before the surgeries." But now I looked like a bombshell in addition to being really good at my work, and it definitely opened up more opportunities. That's when I began to think of the surgeries as an asset and an investment.

We're not too surprised that the woman's male peers noticed her new look, but the fact that it led to promotions is discouraging.

In a time when women are selling their houses to pay for surgery and getting cement butt injections, it seems we'd all do well to focus on augmenting our talents -- instead of our curves -- to make it at work. As Vogue's Franca Sozzani says, your wrinkles are part of your life. Why try to erase them?

Click over to read the full interview with the 55-year-old CEO at Oprah.com and find out the surprising reason she got the procedures in the first place.

(Via The Jane Dough)

Comments

[thejadedentrepreneur]

10:34 AM on 12/16/2011

Damn, and here I though education, skill and talent were the best boosters up the ladder.

[JBaker]

06:08 PM on 12/15/2011

Everyone wants to be accepted. The quickest way to instant approval is to look like a movie star. That will give one preference in every walk of life....up to a point.

Within a very short time - minutes in many cases - the novelty wears of and the person's personality takes front place in the assessment. An arrogant sense of entitlement by someone with symmetrical features will be a quick turn-off to others. I have seen this happen too many times.

Ultimately, people like to be around those individuals who respect them and genuinely like them for who they are, and bring out their best side. In other words, there are different ways of being very, very beautiful to others, and not all of them involve plastic surgery or a flawless complexion.

[ASRock78]

01:04 PM on 12/15/2011

I completely embrace the idea of seeing past someones looks to their intelligence...but let's be real here...at our very core we are instinctually driven to what we consider "attractive"... from a primal perspective it is the minds ways of assessing the value of a mate for their genetic contributions to future offspring.

What doesn't settle well with us is we have the ability to see this in us and in one hand want to be attractive but in the other hand don't want that attractiveness to be the only reason we are given oppotunities or have doors opened for us.

[Nancy Daniel]

06:20 AM on 12/15/2011

In this woman's defense, it's not really 10; 2 were to fix botched jobs, veneers is more a dental thing. And yes, people appreciate good looks, whether at the personal or profession­al level. And the reality is that women especially are judged on their appearance more, especially in workplace.

But this is counter-pr­oductive. She should have made a beeline to the shrink, gotten some self-estee­m enhancemen­t, and put boyfriend in his place. I think her mental issues are still there; having an improved appearance didn't help. On the inside she is still insecure and self-consc­ious, and how hollow that promotion must feel, knowing it wasn't her work ethic alone that earned it. People want acceptance of who they are, not accolades based on an artificial look. This woman is not a role model.
www.thegeekwork.com

[rigormrtis]

01:14 PM on 12/16/2011

it might not have been a harsh comment but due to her low self-esteem she saw it that way.

[mebemommee06]

08:28 PM on 12/14/2011

funny, if my boyfriend would have told me my chest was too small, he'd be my ex...

[mahdavi724]

07:40 PM on 12/14/2011

It's the new confidence she felt in herself that led to her success.
Period.
And it is unfortuate that she wasn't brought up to believe in her quaities, outside of her looks.

[noaxe397]

05:49 PM on 12/14/2011

A hot, tight, buxom woman gets more opportunities than one who is not.............And many planes landed safely at O'Hare airport today, too.

[shisterkatz]

05:06 PM on 12/14/2011

OMG, did anyone see her picture? If not you have to see it, she looks horrible. Click or copy and paste link below.

http://www.thejanedough.com/plastic-surgery-advance-career/

[ScarlettMocha]

05:54 PM on 12/14/2011

Dam!

[newte4]

07:15 PM on 12/14/2011

Yuk,, she looks gross

[waterman3]

02:39 PM on 12/14/2011

" It was clear the reaction had nothing to do with who I really am."

can we try shallow, vain, self absorbed and/or narcissistic for $500, alex?

[Lilian Vasquez]

01:24 PM on 12/14/2011

Who has the money for all those procedures. You must've started out with a job to pay for it.
For those less fortunate with money, there are less expensive and invasive options such as Spanx to reduce inches on the waist or the nosesecret nose correctors to refined the nose, and so on ...

[noaxe397]

05:50 PM on 12/14/2011

She's 55 and a banker................Not sure who paid to repair the botched jobs but I would say 6 months salary would cover the whole thing.

[rigormrtis]

01:15 PM on 12/16/2011

So we should care that this happened to a 1%er?

[SukiTheCat]

01:03 PM on 12/14/2011

good looking people have always had the advantage. I've never felt this more than when I lived in Asia, where it is blatant and they don't try to hide it under a PC veneer

[newte4]

07:22 PM on 12/14/2011

Its true, good looking people get by in life much easier.
I think i would prefer an ugly doctor or or an ugly surgeon, im pretty sure they couldnt cheat as easily or use their looks to get passing grades to become successes later in life

[Jennimyah]

12:35 PM on 12/14/2011

I'm 19 and find men in their late 30's old.

[srj]

01:06 PM on 12/14/2011

That will change sooner than you think.

[briana norwood]

01:27 PM on 12/14/2011

So true srj. 30 arrives much quicker than you can imagine.

[rigormrtis]

01:16 PM on 12/16/2011

wait until you're 30. You'll be praying that 30 year old men notice you.

[electros]

12:26 PM on 12/14/2011

She forgot to mention all the hand strengthing exercizes and purchasing lots of hand lotion to lavish on her male customers, I mean male co workers!

[dexrmerritt]

11:56 AM on 12/14/2011

Please.....Hollywood controls the world. They call it Hollywoodese or Dramaese. Bunch of freaks!!

[Pondo Sinatra]

11:51 AM on 12/14/2011

Must have been the boobs !!