Not Dressing For Success

If you combine recent college graduates with those who are graduating high school and not continuing their education and you throw in all the unemployed there are a lot of people in the market for jobs. With that in mind sometimes it’s the little things that can make the difference in who gets hired and who doesn’t and a good place to seize an advantage is in the attire job seekers wear on interviews. Unfortunately it seems more and more people lose any hope of landing a job because the expression “dress for success” is one they never heard.

The job interview is no doubt a stressful situation, especially if you’ve been out of work for a while and are somewhat desperate. It’s also your first chance to impress a potential employer. Often men and women don’t have much information during this stage about the company they are interviewing with and that includes the dress code. The rule of thumb here is its better to overdress a little than under-dress. Of course there is a difference between seeking a job pumping gas and working for a Fortune 500 company but nobody losses a job because they were dressed too formally while many are knocked out of the running by dressing like they did in school. Most Human Resource officials expect you to wear business attire and preferably a suit.
They want the job seeker to look like are serious and feel if you don’t wear your best business attire to an interview it makes the employer question how important the job really is. Plus it’s hard to take someone seriously wearing flip-flogs, an out-of-season sweater and a wrinkled puffy skirt.

The problem is especially for the younger generation they have grown up during what I call “the casualness of America.” There was a time when everyone got dressed up for school, church, going out for dinner…look at old newsreels and you’ll see even in the 1960’s men wearing ties at baseball games. That’s been replaced with wardrobes that often include ripped jeans and shirts two sizes to big plus hats worn backwards. Getting dressed up for some simply means wearing a shirt with a collar and any pair of pants besides jeans.

That may be fine and dandy when you’re a teen-ager or young adult but when looking for a job you’d be wise to follow this cliché….dress for the position you want, not the one you have.