The Candidates Arrive…
Ed Pollock, January 6th, 2010 
Choose the right clothes for your interview!
Here’s the follow-up to my post regarding the candidates who showed up for the interviews. There are two important themes here. First, dress appropriately, and second, arrive early.
Dressing for an interview.
I wrote a bit about this previously, so I’ll just enhance that a bit with examples of how people showed up here for their interviews.
Too many of the applicants were either over dressed or under dressed. How can you be “overdressed”? Well, in a sense, its dressy clothing for the wrong occasion. When you dress up for an interview, you don’t want to wear clothes that look like you’re gong out on a date. Yes, that’s dressy, but it’s not business dress. It’s fancy casual dress. Others were under-dressed. No matter how much you paid for your jeans, they aren’t interview clothes for office jobs. After you get the job, jeans may be fine – but when you interview, you want to dress in business wear. With so many people today responding to the same ad, it is critical to dress properly.
Choose the right clothes for an interview!
To be clear, of the candidates who came in to interview, there were by far more people under-dressed, than over-dressed. At least 10% of those interviewed wore a t-shirt and jeans. That is not really acceptable attire for interviewing! One young lady had some printed words on her t-shirt. This was beyond unacceptable. Another candidate had a very wrinkled blouse which looked like it was slept in. Nice clothing that’s unkempt doesn’t make the cut.
On the subject of fragrances – cologne or perfume, it may be a good idea to forget it for the job interview. In our interviews, one young lady wore so much that the office smelled for the whole afternoon. The fragrance caused other candidates to start sneezing when they entered the office!
The winner?
The person who was got the job, wore a black 2 piece suit, with a very nice white blouse and ascot. That’s the way to go.
Arrive early!
There several reasons to arrive a bit ahead of schedule. First, it gives you time to collect your thoughts. Second, it gives you a chance to freshen up prior to the interview. This helps you look your best and will help with confidence, too.
Here’s an example of a person who arrived late. She arrived 10 minutes late for the interview, sat down in the chair and talked for 30 minutes straight telling us all about her background, which included problems with her boy friend, statements about bad companies she worked for (she alleged sexual misconduct), why she dropped out of school, and ended by saying if she got the job she would break up with her boy friend and get her own place to live. Ok…you probably can guess what I think about this.
Maybe if she had arrived 15 minutes early for the interview, she would have had time to compose herself and be more relaxed. I think her ranting on about her personal life may have been caused by being late for interview. A candidate should carefully listen to the questions asked, and then just answer each question. Interviewers are not interested in your personal life, and there’s a risk of alienating the interviewer.
Good hunting!
Categories: Interviewing Tips, Job Hunting arrive early, interview dress
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