You'll see various research and general advice concerning what best to wear for job interviews. The sort of clothes, styles, colours, shoes, make-up, accessories, etc., are likely to have the best effect. Standard rules for dress code at interviews are mostly common sense: be smart, coordinated, clean, tidy, relatively under-stated - however you can go further than merely adopting the standard recommendations to wear blue or grey suits, black shoes, white, cream, pale yellow and pastel colours for shirts and blouses; and to avoid black (too funereal - unless your interview is with an undertakers), bow-ties, Elton John specs and deer-stalker hats.
You can take a more sophisticated approach to your choice of dress and style at job interviews.
Your best choice of dress, clothes, colours and style at interview should actually depend on the role and what surrounds it.
For example, blue is thought by many people to represent formal business professionalism, which is fine for 'professional' job opportunities, but a smartly pressed blue business suit and crisp white shirt and tie won't help you much in an interview for a role requiring care and compassion, working outdoors in all weathers, managing down-to-earth labourers, being bubbly and creative, or teaching disaffected kids.
What we wear should be an extension of our personality of course, but also importantly, indicates to the interviewer our ability to recognise what the employment situation and job requires.
No-one ever got a job because of the way they dressed whereas lots of people fail to get jobs because 'something' about their appearance put the interviewer off - maybe just a bit - but enough not to get the job.
Dress in a way that projects you personality, sure, but not to the extent that your appearance is inappropriate to the situation. For adventurous dressers, especially going for jobs that might call for a spark of individuality, it can be a fine judgement. A lot depends on the interviewer too - innovative interviewers in industries that are amenable to flair will respond more positively to people who look different. But process-orientated decision-makers in structured environments will prefer people who look safer. If in doubt err on the safe side.
Employers want people who can do the job - that's a given - but they also badly need people who will 'align' and fit in - people who can 'get the beat' of the organisation and department. Empathy, trust, rapport, are all built on this initial platform, and what you wear and how you style yourself provide a great opportunity to start putting these foundations in place with the interviewer. Your interview dress code and visible styling help you show the interviewer (it's a conscious and unconscious effect) that you understand the organisation's style and how to fit in with it; that you can adapt appropriately to your environment - it's a valuable ability and there's nothing to be achieved by creating doubts in this area.
So when you next prepare for a job interview, try to orientate your choice of clothes and style to that of the employer, and also to the way the interviewer perceives the role. Consider also the type of job and the service sector, and particularly the personality, skills and behaviour that is required in the role: For example is the role mainly extravert or introvert, detailed or conceptual, creative or processing, conforming or innovative, etc., and how does this affect the way you should be styling yourself and dressing for the interview?
If it helps you decide what to wear, think about how the existing employees dress. Does the employer have a conservative attitude and culture regarding dress code, or is the culture more modern and relaxed. It is as unhelpful for you to be dressed too conservatively and professionally as it is to be dressed not professionally enough. Try to get an idea of what people wear in the organisation so that you can reflect, within reason, the tone and style that fits in with the employer and the interviewer's expectations. Do the men wear ties or not? Do the women wear suits? Do they 'dress down' on Fridays? (This is particularly relevant if you happen to go for an interview at their offices on a dress-down Friday, when prior knowledge will help you to tone down a little and avoid sticking out like someone who doesn't fit in because they've not had the sense to find out before-hand.) Go see or ask if this will help you to feel more confident.
On the point of going and seeing, especially if you know very little about the organisation, it's often helpful to get a feel of the place and the people before deciding that the organisation is actually worthy of your talents and commitment. If you live close enough to the organisation's offices or site it makes good sense to visit their reception or sales office as part of your pre-interview research, when you can pick up a few brochures, feel the atmosphere, and form a view of staff attitudes and style, etc. This will also give you a good indication of their dress code, especially if you visit when people are arriving or leaving work. Lunch-time visits are interesting too - at the start of breaks and when people return to work. It's amazing what you can hear and learn sometimes, simply sitting in a busy reception for a few minutes or approaching a reception desk and asking for a brochure.
As regards your own appearance for interviews, consider any jewellery and other bodily adornments too. No-one ever got a job because they wore an outrageously big fat diamond ring, or a nineteen-ounce gold chain over their shirt, but I bet there'll have been plenty of people who've not got jobs because they've erred on the wrong side of this particular judgement.
For the same reason, the number of body piercings displayed at interview is generally inversely proportional to the chances of successfully attracting a job offer, unless the job happens to be in a body piercing studio.
Tattoos are another interesting area. Attitudes to tattoos are certainly more tolerant than twenty years ago: even main board directors these days commonly will be hiding a little dragon or butterfly somewhere intimate on their person, however, given two equally-matched candidates at a job interview or group selection, the one with the short sleeves and naked ladies up each forearm is unlikely to get the nod. Safest bet - especially for customer-facing jobs (literally face-to-face) - is not to show too much tattooed skin at interviews unless you are very confident of yourself indeed.
The reality unfortunately is that most people, including interviewers, will tend to judge you with their eyes, not least because interviewers know that their customers and staff will do too. And, like all business decisions, recruitment decisions reflect on the people making them. Therefore when you are being interviewed the interviewer is not only deciding whether you can do the job, they are also deciding whether choosing you will reflect well or not on their own reputation. The less you challenge this area the more likely they'll feel comfortable deciding in your favour. Use your common sense.
So, if the role and the organisation calls for someone to conform and behave according to strong corporate style and expectations then dress accordingly. If the role and the organisation calls for individuality and fresh ideas then you have more licence to dress more individually, but still beware. It remains that most employers and interviewers, whatever they might say about welcoming fresh blood and challenging new ideas, will always tend to err on the side of caution. Interviewers generally don't knowingly take risks - they prefer safe options - safe non-threatening people, who appear and dress in a safe and non-threatening way.
I'm not saying you've got to become a de-humanised clone for the interview, or that there's no place for individuality, on the contrary actually - you've got to look good (and extremely smart too if it's called for) - and aside from this there certainly is a huge need for individual thought and behaviour and innovation in all organisations - but that's after you've got the job and settled in. You've got to get the job first, and you'll do that most easily by appearing immediately like someone who'll fit in rather well, not by looking like someone who marches to a different tune or has no idea how to adapt to their environment.
Clothes, style, colours, jewellery, hair, like anything else that represents you as the applicant (just as the quality and presentation of your CV for example), should project the 'fit' and congruence between yourself and the employer and the interviewer's requirements for the job, and also show that you can understand different situations and behave accordingly. Individuality is great, but the job interview is not really the best place to start displaying a highly individual dress style, unless the role specifically calls for it, which in truth is very rarely indeed.
Look good, but under-stated. Project yourself and your personality in what you wear, but above all show that you are aware of what's going on around you, and that you can adapt to the situation and present yourself appropriately.
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