Job seekers head to surgeons to get a cut above the rest

NEW YORK CITY – Aimee Gremmo has spent the last six months going on interview after interview with no luck.

The out-of-work catering saleswoman believes the problem isn’t in her resume but in her face.

“I've been told more than once that I sounded much younger on the phone,” the 43-year-old said.

So she’s decided to freshen her look - and hopefully her job prospects – with a facelift.

Dr. Yan Trokel gave her a “Y-Lift,” a series of injections that results in a facelift without the surgery in under an hour.

"The Y-lift is really a three-dimensional lift,” Trokel said. “Not only do we lift up and back, but we also lift out the volume of the skin. That's what keeps us looking so natural, and fresh, and not pulled.

“We can re-elevate the face. We're able to rebuild that hollow-eye look, the cheeks, the jaw line, even make the neck really nice and taught."

That may seem extreme, but in a tight economy, older workers can have a much tougher time finding work.

"The majority of older workers will say that they have experience-age bias,” said “Good Morning America” workplace contributor Tory Johnson. “And it's not just something fictitious or imagined in our minds. It is very real."

In fact, while there are fewer unemployed older workers than younger workers, those 45 and up represent a disproportionate number of the long-term unemployed. That means it can take them six months or longer to get rehired.

Plastic surgery not the antidote?

Still, Johnson says going under the knife isn't the best strategy.

"Plastic surgery is definitely not the antidote for older workers to unemployment," Johnson said. "Sometimes a $10 haircut can do the trick."

Gremmo spent several thousand dollars on her procedure. We followed her to her first post-Y-Lift job interview for a catering sales position with New York-based Elegant Affairs.

Facelift gives woman renewed confidence

Gremmo did look remarkably different and said her new look gave her the confidence boost she needed.

"I felt great on the interview! I felt like I had a whole new cover sheet to my resume," she said with a smile.

We didn't tell company president Andrea Correale how Gremmo got her new look, but when we asked her about the interview, she raved about Gremmo.

"Not only does she have a great look about her, her appearance, which is very important in this industry, but she has knowledge," Correale said. "I thought she had a great sense of style. I thought she was very attractive, young, trendy, I think she's perfect."

So it appears, at least in Gremmo's case, the cosmetic surgery paid off. She got the job.