Dressing for success

It’s much easier to do for a first interview…. not so much for the second (if you’re a girl at least because this is another area where guys have it easy).

I always received the advice that you should dress conservatively and professionally for interviews. After years of high school speech competitions, I have a nice selection of unique and memorable suits (including purple, green, blue tapestry and gray with a tie-style back) all of which I assure you are professional. But my go-to suit for interviews, presentations and any other time that I need my appearance to scream “grown-up!” I wear one of my trusty black suits (and high heels of course because typical grown-ups are actually taller than 5 feet). So that’s what I wore for my first interview with an advertising agency.

Then I got called and asked in for a second interview. Which is great! But a closet nightmare for me. I can’t hit up a trusty black suit again without sending the message that I only own one professional outfit. So I turned to my suits and there were too many options!

I ended up sending this picture to my friend Abby for help:

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The three suit options: gray, black and gray or black and blue tapesty

Her advice was to wear something memorable, because I’d already passed the “can she dress up? Test.”

Although Abby voted for the blue, Brad voted for the gray because it didn’t look like an “old lady” jacket like the blue one.

Suits are completely safe for interviews in my opinion because they are always professional and are widely accepted. So I get confused when people in movies or on tv shows wear strange casual outfits to interviews.

PS: I got the job.

4 thoughts on “Dressing for success

  1. The shout out is only my second favorite thing about this post… the first being that you got the job!

    I remember not knowing what to wear for my second interview at an agency too. I ended up going more casual because it was HOT that day and I figured a clean-cut, presentable dress shirt said “hire me!” more than the saturated, suit-clad look.

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