How Plastic Surgery Can Boost Your Career

Penelope Trunk, a careers blogger and author of Brazen Careerist, predicted in a blog entry earlier this year that plastic surgery will become a tool "for the go-getters and career-minded" and will even be a routine procedure for college grads.

Executive coach Judy Jernudd helps her corporate clients improve their body language, appearance, and clothing, often using a video camera to show a slumped posture or unenthusiastic delivery. "Almost all of us, if we would admit it, and it may not be conscious, we do make pretty quick impressions of people," she says, noting that good-looking people tend to have a universal appeal that attracts everyone. Jernudd believes there's a lot that people can do to improve their looks.

"I'm not encouraging everyone to go out and get cosmetic surgery," Jernudd says. "I think there are people that can go overboard on cosmetic surgery. But I do think that you can see people—if it's done correctly—where they can look 10 years younger."

History is, of course, full of very successful individuals who weren't much to look at: Think Napoleon or Albert Einstein. But these are the exceptions, and they don't disprove the rule, Patzer says.

There is, of course, one other option. People could all rise up, armed with the awareness of their discriminatory tendencies, and make a conscious effort to start treating everyone equally. Even newborns.