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How to Dress for a Job Interview

How to Dress for a Job Interview

Tips on How to Dress Successfully for a Job Interview

Job interviews are a lot of things, and your ticket to a new job can be one of them if you play your cards right. Pressure is a job interview’s best friend, however, and whether it’s self-imposed or coming from an external source, that fateful meeting (or worse yet, series of meetings) determines a lot of about what’s going to happen in the future, and can have a serious effect on our lives. What’s more is how much needs to go into a job interview. There are a lot of moving parts, so to speak, and a lot has to be gotten right for an interview to be pulled off successfully. One of these parts, of course, is your physical appearance. Judging people by the way they look is one thing, but when you’re running in professional circles, the way you present yourself is taken into serious consideration. We (mostly) can’t control the way we physically appear, but we have complete agency over the way that we present ourselves via things like clothing, hairstyle, and so on. As such, dressing the right way for your interview is of the utmost importance. A great job interview outfit can make or break plenty of interviews, so we’re going to talk about the way to dress for success before you head to that next dream job interview.

What to Wear to an Interview

Fit is perhaps more important to the way clothes look than is acknowledged. The same pair of pants can look expensive, modern and sharp when they fit, or tawdry and cheap when they don’t. If you’ve got a big job interview coming you want to make sure your clothes fit you. This is, of course, dependant on your body type, but if you’re a relatively svelte individual, then clothes with a closer fit will make you look sharper. At this point, level of formality isn’t even important. Above all else, your clothes need to fit, and they need to match. Wear complementary colors. Don’t mix patterns. Wear a belt that’s the same color as your shoes. Wear dark socks. These fashion basics don’t matter when you’re doing your own thing, but for a job interview they’re pretty sufficiently important.

Read the atmosphere and try to get an accurate reading of how you should dress. It also doesn’t hurt or look bad in the slightest to simply ask before you come in. Different offices have different dress codes, so depending on the type of business at which you’re interviewing, you might be better off going full-on office attire or keeping it dressy casual. Figure this out so you can dress the part when you show up for your interview. It’s not hard to find a look that suits you, and to follow simple fashion guidelines for job interview success. Remember that you always have to make sure that your face and hands are clean and well-groomed, but other than that, you’re well on your way to interview success!

Make sure that you’re well prepared for that next interview. Read these:

10 Tips For A Successful Job Interview
Job Interview Tips – 5 Essentials to Do the Day Before the Interview

Need help to ace that next job interview? Career Reno can help you! Renovate your job search and get the job that you want!

Need more tips for a better interview result? Check out these books:

15 Minutes to a Better Interview: What I Wish EVERY Job Candidate Knew

The Psychology of Job Interviews

Answers to the Top 20 Interview Questions: Conquering the Job Interview Process

Jenni Proctor

Hi, I'm Jenni Proctor from Boomers Next Step. Remember when the formula for success in life was simply to strive for good marks at school, gain qualifications, get a great job, work hard and save for your retirement? Yes, I believed it too! For years my husband David and I wanted to develop a business that we could operate anywhere in the world, but both of us were educated to be employees.  We had entrepreneurial dreams and ideas, but still had employee mindsets. 14 years ago I took the giant leap!  I left my job in Education to start a business as a Career Counsellor and Coach, helping mature adults transition from one career path to another, and particularly from employment to entrepreneurship.  I had studied long and hard to gain new qualifications but sadly I hadn’t learnt how to market my new business. About 12 years ago we realized that we were not tracking well towards having the sort of retirement we wanted. We’d saved; we’d invested; and like so many other people we’d also lost some money along the way. It didn’t help that my business was not bringing in as much as I had been earning as an employee. Our dreams of extensive travel and helping our family were being replaced by a growing concern that we would outlive our savings. It seemed that a traditional retirement would not allow us to maintain the lifestyle we wanted. I love helping people plan the next phase of their lives, but we realized that was not going to be enough.  We needed a way to create an income stream that would pay for the travel and other lifestyle luxuries we wanted, that would provide mental stimulation, and would interest us both.

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