Dress to Impress - How to prepare for an in-person and virtual job interview
Dressing for your interview can be a challenging task - you want to be able to show a professional, yet neutral side of yourself while making sure your first impressions count. Here is how you dress to impress for a job interview.
Your attire goes a long way to establishing how you communicate yourself to your interviewer - you have every right to use your interview attire to creatively represent you as a person but never forget this cannot be at the loss of your professional demeanor or formality.
Casual attire has connotations of, at its best, a casual approach to work, and at its worst, unpreparedness and laziness. All of which do not bode well for your interview. On the other hand, a neat, neutral but formal choice of attire shows preparedness for the interview and respect for the office of the interviewer.
Even if the interviewer turns up more casually dressed than you, that’s a great reflection of the deference you are showing to the interview.
You’d rather be slightly overdressed, than slightly underdressed.
Are there industry specific codes of dress?
To a degree, yes: for example banking or accountancy is traditionally seen as a very neat and professional working environment, with all working people in suits, or equivalent level of formal attire.
Advertising and Journalism is a little more relaxed, but still smart, and some creative industries have no dress code at all, but tend to encourage a professional, smart tone with creative expression attached as a bonus,
Interviewer Hack!
You need to meet a stand-alone standard, that of “The Interviewee Standard”. You need comfortable, yet formal clothing, but not too formal (IE Dinner Jackets), you need to make sure it’s neutral yet formal.
In effect, you need it to convey a sense of subtle, neat professionalism, and let your character and resume do the real talking.
Suggestions for Men
- A freshly pressed and dry cleaned suit in neutral colours with a conservative tie,
- Freshly polished shoes,
- Non- or subtly-scented aftershave,
- Well groomed hair and nails.
Suggestions for Women
- A freshly pressed and dry cleaned skirt- or trouser-suit (no shorter than knee length) in neutral colours,
Freshly polished, low heeled shoes or brogues, - No scented products (including perfume and/or hair care products),
- Conservative jewelry,
- Well groomed hair and nails.