Here’s a question for the readers today: what is the best piece of interview advice you’ve ever received? (Or: What’s the best tip for interviewing you learned the hard way?) As millions of job-seekers flood career fairs at business schools and law schools, this seems an apt time to talk about it. (Pictured: Will Work for Cheese, originally uploaded to Flickr by walknboston.)
For my $.02, the best interview advice that I got was to figure out what wasn’t on your resume, but is a great employee trait. Are you a great team player? Extremely creative? Can you think outside the box but in a practical way? Lovely — now try to remember stories from your past that illustrate those qualities. Try to do this with two or three traits (and memories that illustrate those traits). I wouldn’t advise you to rehearse these stories — you never want to sound rehearsed in an interview — but you may want to spend 5 minutes and bang out an email to yourself putting the memory to words. Not only does this a) boost your confidence, but b) it gives you a go-to story if you get asked one of those odd questions that interviewers sometimes throw at you.
Ok, readers — what’s your best interview advice?
Check out all of our old interviewing posts here.
We got an interesting e-mail last week from LPC of Privilege: A High Wasp Stops to Consider, offering to write a post giving advice to newbies from her much higher position. She’s got some great advice in here!
Your first big job. Congratulations. By big, I mean in an institution of substance, as a lawyer, a banker, a corporate new hire. We are talking the world of salaries, hierarchies, protocol. And expectations about dress.
Of course this is not the only path. Some people work in design, in small businesses, in retail, at home. But our world has very particular requirements for what to wear. Hence Corporette. Hence this wardrobe advice to women at the beginning of their careers, from one towards the end of hers. I started out in 1981, fresh out of business school, at a large chemical company, and left the corporate world in 2009 as a vice-president for a software services startup in Silicon Valley.
Nice to meet you.
What to wear in an entry level job makes most of us nervous. It’s new territory, after all. You are supposed to be a little unnerved. We read up. Ask friends. I remember worrying about the fullness of my first skirted suit, was it too much like a party dress? The thing is, there’s no one answer. There is, however, a very simple process to follow to get it right.
The Strategic Principles
- Your clothing sends signals about who you are. Into a very distinct culture. Which varies enormously from corporation to corporation. On purpose. CEOs believe that a strong culture gives them the power to effect change and accomplish goals. They are right. Support their efforts. Fight any battles for change in other arenas, from a position of strength. That’s a lesson useful in areas beyond wardrobe.
- Your clothing also talks to you. All day long, are you are comfortable or not, fitting in or not, wearing your favorite colors or fabrics or shapes? Or not. If, as they say, a brand is a promise on which you have to deliver reliably to your customers, your professional image is your brand, and it’s got to be one you can deliver. Sustainably over the long, long term. You should feel good in your clothes. Anchored. In the context of your company, or firm culture, of course.
The Bullet Points
- Men pick up different signals than women
- Requirements for dress vary from function to function
- Navy blue really is the corporate color of choice
- Fabric – not too little, not too much
- Keep your style rebellion subtle
The Speaker Notes
Men And Women
Men pick up different signals than women. No matter what you do, most likely most men will be assessing whether you are hot or not. They can’t help themselves. Ensures continuity of our species, so let’s just assume it’s not a bad thing and let it go for now. As long as they behave professionally. Hot is off the table. Assess your clothing to make sure you are doing your part to keep it off the table. I’m not saying that you make yourself unattractive. But hot is off the table.
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