Five Decades Of Lessons On What NOT To Wear On Your Interview

APRIL 24TH, 2016 | BY RUTHI POSTOW

Going on an interview for a job you really want and wondering what to wear? A good rule to follow is: don’t be too memorable. Don’t let your clothes be all the employer remembers about you.

Fashions trend and styles change – sometimes to the good and sometimes to the odd. Just because it’s in style doesn’t mean you should wear it to your interview.

Every era has it’s hippy cool fringe 1970’s radical, statement-making fashions that are examples of what NOT to wear on your interview.

In the late 1970’s, when pantsuits were considered too informal for women to wear to interviews, the candidate who came dressed in Crimped hair style of the 1980’shippy-cool was not what the employer had in mind.

In the 1980’s a skirt with a white bow-blouse got the job. Super crimped hair in a side ponytail and huge jewelry were in and fun, but didn’t.
One woman actually came to her interview A deely-bobber, the silliest ever stylewearing the newlyinvented deely-bobber.

The 90’s brought a return to the innocent days of our childhood – with baby-doll dresses, tee-shirts with jumpers and Doc Martin Mary Jane shoes – plus scrunchies.

What are the 21st century styles that make the wrong statements? Filmy, semi-see-through peasant 2000’s style peasant blouses. Uggs worn everywhere with everything. Hats that have come back, with fedoras trending. (As have the jelly shoes of the 80’s but as jelly sandals – and with socks, although I haven’t had anyone come in wearing them yet.)

Silly? Maybe, but they are all real items I’ve seen worn by real people in real interviews. There is plenty of advice out there on dressing for success, but people still choose clothes that won’t bring them success. So why do they do it?

Here is the answer I got from a woman who insisted on wearing stylish, skin-tight Capri pants and strappy high-heel sandals to her interview. “This is the real me.” The real her didn’t get the job.

Keep a few secrets and wear something conservative. Most employers don’t want that much of the real you. They want the you who is serious about your career and who will get the job done.