I just graduated undergrad. I realized that there is a trend in positions over my college career. Does working a front of the house position (Like a nurse or a child care aide) require a slimmer look?
I just looked and apparently body size / obesity is not a protected class in hiring. I would hope, though, that it would not stand in the way of an employer hiring someone who is the best candidate for the job. I live in an area of the US where the majority of adults are overweight, so I don’t really notice body type and who does what job anymore.
I would say that many nurses and child care workers are very overweight. So the likelihood is that the interviewer could be overweight, and certainly, used to having overweight co-workers. I don’t think that prejudice against overweight people would come up in those fields. The higher up the socioeconomic ladder, the more I think it could come into play. It’s not right, but it’s true.
I knew a couple who were members of a religion that put a tremendous amount of emphasis on people’s physical appearance, especially for women, but for men, too. They both had bariatric surgery done. One of them nearly died of a subsequent complication of the surgery, but who knows if they would have died early of an obesity-related condition. They had it done because they knew that they would be more accepted both within their religion, and professionally.