Previously, on Corporette…

13 Comments

1. Kat – you can’t leave us with a side note like that! Now you have to tell the story that inspired the tip . . . we’ll assume you were the interviewer and not the interviewee :)

   1. In comments maybe it won’t be too bad — got a call *that day* from a friend who was doing OCI at a law school. Apparently, a girl had come to interview wearing a suiting dress + jacket (one that I may or may not have recommended; I don’t remember exactly) and when she sat down it went up to mid-thigh. My friend, a midlevel at a BigLaw firm had been one of two people doing the interviewing;the other person was a senior partner — one of the rare female partners at the firm. My friend noticed the skirt but wouldn’t have said anything — apparently, the senior partner went on and on (and on) about it for days after the interview. The woman did not, needless to say, get a callback.

      Oh, and that yellow chair and the mirror? That’s my old bedroom — shot the pic myself. (And now you know why I use Creative Commons Flickr stuff for most of my photo illustrations!)

2. This is not for the office per-se (let’s hope) but in general, ladies, you should be careful of how you sit in ANY dress or skirt at any time. I attended a wedding this weekend and unfortunately can tell you the color of undergarments worn by at least 5 different wedding guests due to their utter failure to sit appropriately for the length of their dresses…

   Ugh.

   When the (single, looking, and not overly picky) men are commenting on how trashy it is, you know it has to be bad.

   1. Well, I guess on the bright side, they were wearing under garments.

   2. On the same note, do not wear a black shirt and tuck it in to your white pants!!!!

      1. Sadly, I’ve yet to see a woman IRL wearing white pants (pants, not jeans) where I couldn’t also see either (1) her panty line, (2) her thong, or (3) the fact that she’d decided to forgo underpants. This is why I don’t own white pants!

         1. Weird. I wear white pants all the time and get compliments. You just have to wear skin-color, microfiber/no-show panties or boyshorts. My favorites are loose, unlined white linen ones – perfect on hot days.

3. Seeking outfit advice. What would you wear to dinner with clients when it’s in a casual, non-business setting. I generally wear a suit to work but it would look really really odd if I wore a suit to our dinner. My normal non-work attire consists of sundresses and shorts–stuff I consider inappropriate for a client dinner.

   1. I’d wear nice pants (for me, I’d pick a chino material pant in army green or dark grey) and a nice shirt that can’t be in any way described as a t-shirt. Maybe a lightweight sweater.

   2. I have a couple of skirts that are similar to this one. Both have a floral pattern and pair it with a nicer t-shirt or polo shirt and some nice sandals.

      http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/64913?parentCategory=503104&feat=503104-tn&cat4=503101

   3. I find this more difficult in summer / hotter climates but typically go with dark nicer jeans (if appropriate) and a blouse that could be casual or worn in a work setting w/ a suit (and often is earlier in the day) like an Ann Taylor or BR blouse, and more substantial / heeled sandles (nothing that could be mistaken for flip flops). If I’m not sure about jeans, a shift dress or 3/4 sleeve wrap dress. In the winter, a sweater and nicer pants, even suit pants w/o jacket .

      1. I also wanted to mention, if in doubt I err toward more formal mostly b/c I’m a younger attorney (28) and would rather be over dressed than come across as too juvenille.

4. I clicked on the “Poll Results: Nude Pantyhose for Interviews” link followed by the link to the WSJ piece on Erin Callan, the CFO of Lehman Brothers at the time.

   It’s odd reading a story about Lehman Brothers from May 2008.

Comments are closed.