Dress for the Position You Want

By: Kelsey McMullan

Dressing to impress is something near and dear to our office. Every year the office staff see a huge range of clothing choices come into the career fair or employer day. Sometimes students impress us by how well they clean up, sometimes the clothes students wear in front of employers makes us want to weep.

To help our students make better choices we have created a workshop called, “DRESS 2 IMPRESS.” This semester the workshop will be held on Jan. 30th at 10:00 am and again Jan. 31st at 3:30 pm. Both events are presented by WHITE HOUSE| BLACK MARKET and will be held in the Commons Building, room 340.

Personally I’m very excited to have partnered with WHITE HOUSE| BLACK MARKET! I feel that this partnership will bring a fresh and lively perspective to our workshop.

If you can’t attend the workshop though I am happy to share a few tips and tricks.

MEN:

I know fashion isn’t (usually) your first love. PLEASE attempt to care though! At least while you are talking with prospective employers.

My tips for the guys:

1) wear a dark colored suit, a nice button down shirt, and a coordinating tie.

2) Iron everything! Maybe not your boxers and socks, but defiantly your pants, jacket, and shirt.

3) Choose a professional looking tie. A solid or simple stripe are best. Be careful with pasterns- please don’t wear a rubber ducky tie.

4) Don’t forget to take the tags off.

5) Its always a good idea to shine your shoes the night before. You don’t need to be a master shoe-polisher, you can find ‘Intsant-Shine’ in more general stores.

6) Are you wearing a dark suit? Please wear dark socks with it. You don’t want your ankles or sloppy white socks to be the one thing an employer remembers about you.

LADIES:

The number one thing I want the women to keep in mind about meeting employers is they don’t want to see your party clothes. Fashion trends are your worst enemy when it comes to professional attire.

1) A conservative, plain colored suit is the most appropriate clothing choice when meeting employers.

2) Cover the girls up. Women can make employers uncomfortable when they show too much skin. Employers are super-conscious of sexual harassment lawsuits and won’t hire you if they feel you will be a threat to their established employees.

3) Keep your skirt length at or JUST above your knee. I’m talking an inch above, no more! Please see #2 for my reasons why. When in doubt, just choose pants.

3) Keep your club shoes at home. Instead of your six inch hot pink cheetah print heels try wearing something in a neutral color and with a heel three inches or lower. There are some very classy pumps out there that you can choose from instead. Don’t have any? I guess you’ll just have to go shoe shopping.

4) Wear appropriate makeup. We hate seeing masks of foundation, eye shadows that would make a clown jealous, and lip stick that rivals Lady Ga Ga. If you need help learning to apply your makeup there are professionals at most beauty stores that would be happy to assist you. Just let them know that you want a look for an interview.

I hope these tips help you make good decisions for Employer Day. If you have any questions, our office is happy to help you.

Remember: Dress for the position you want, not the position you have.

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/daran_kandasamy/4976101341/”>Daran Kandasamy</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/”>cc</a>

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/thirdfloorcloset/5391765330/”>3rdfloorcloset</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/”>cc</a>