Home » News » Mixed-race job applicant calls out ‘troubling’ comments about his hair by estate agent
Regulation & Law

Mixed-race job applicant calls out ‘troubling’ comments about his hair by estate agent

Jaiden Gaston says he was frustrated that his interview at a London agency didn't consider his academic and sporting achievements or life experience.

Nigel Lewis

mixed race interview estate agent

A young wannabe estate agent with a mixed-race background has contacted The Negotiator to say he has faced troubling comments about his hair during an interview.

This follows the 18-year-old’s recent meeting this week at an estate agency in East London, whose MD says he disagrees strongly with the criticisms levelled by Jaiden Gaston.

During the interview Jaiden says he was told that his brown curly hair and appearance were not appropriate and that he wouldn’t go down well with the ’55-year-old solicitors’ he’d be dealing with in the role who wouldn’t ‘take him seriously’.

Jaiden also says that at one point the interviewer told him a career in hospitality or retail would be more suitable as somewhere to get some ‘life experience’ despite his academic and sporting achievements.

The estate agency involved says it was not his type of hair that was being discussed, but the ‘high fashion’ nature of its cut which, given the older and wealthier clients the agency sells houses for, would have created challenges when dealing with them.

It also says that it does not recruit people as young as Jaiden into sales roles, and that a lettings role would have been more appropriate but even then, he still needs more employment experience to be ready for that.

Try again

But the company’s MD says he was aware of Jaiden’s ethnicity prior to the interview, that 60% of the firm’s staff are people of colour and that it would encourage Jaiden to try again once he’s got some more work experience under his belt.

Nevertheless, Jaiden says: “I felt it was disappointing that the interviewer seemed troubled by my hair type; whether I’d be relevant to middle-aged solicitors; and that he gave me no chance to explain about my life experience, which as an athlete has included travelling abroad and meeting many different people in different situations,” he says.

“I walked away from the interview thinking his strange and unthinking attitudes had not given me the chance to really set out my stall and that he had dismissed me based upon, of all things, the kind of hair I have.”

Jaiden says he has not been put off too much by the experience and still has a passion for property but may instead try a different route into the industry other than estate agency.

November 18, 2021

What's your opinion?

Please note: This is a site for professional discussion. Comments will carry your full name and company.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.