Profession Dress In The Workplace

Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.                         

I have heard this phrase since I have started my college experience, probably even before that. Appropriate dress in the workplace, while extremely important, can be a little confusing. I know that when I went in to interview for my first internship I was extremely nervous. Not only was I nervous because this was my first real grown up interview and I really wanted the job, but because I wasn’t quite sure what to wear. I had no idea what kind of dress code they had, and I was poor college student who didn’t really have any professional clothes to speak of. So off shopping I went, and quickly became overwhelmed at the amount of ‘professional’ clothing offered in the stores. Some of which I was not sure actually fell into the ‘professional’ dress category. So I went for simple, yet well put together. When in doubt KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. 

Now when I actually went into my interview, it went great and I got the job and was ecstatic. However I left feeling confused. I was interviewed by two men; one came in wearing a suit the other wearing jeans and a button down shirt. Talk about mixed messages. The first few weeks I dressed nicer than their dress code probably called for, but is that really a bad thing? No, it really isn’t.

I think that at the core of knowing how to dress well is to just keep it simple. I did a ton of research about professional dress before my interview and found list after list of what to wear and what not to wear. How to do your hair and you makeup and your nails and what shoes you should wear. It went on and on. It seemed like a lot of rules, but I think what they were trying to get across was in its simplest form is to dress like you care.

In the end what it really boils down to, is to dress like you care. You want to be respected and to look like you know what you are doing. Dress for your part or for the part you want. You may be the most knowledgeable person in your field, have the most credentials, graduated from the best school. But if you don’t look like that person no one will believe you are that person. Appearances have a huge impact on how people perceive us. That may seem shallow, but it's the truth.