She wasn't supposed to be likable, she and Bond were meant to dislike each other and feel extremely competitive with each other, at least at first. She was supposed to make Bond feel threatened, she had his old job and as such - she symbolized change and youth and the sense of being part of something larger than yourself, all the things that Bond had give up or lost. She made him feel just a little bit obsolete.
Oh, and she wasn't meant to be particularly hot, not someone you could dismiss by saying "She got the job because of her looks". But of course, since it's a Bond film, she accepted him as the Alpha and became an ally, which is probably not how things would go in real life.