Dressing for success

Any time you have personal contact with a potential employer you need to pay attention to your personal presentation.

Before they get to know you as a person, how you look is the only way they can create a first impression of what you’re like.

You want to make a positive impression, so when you’re walking around dropping off your resume or going for an interview, you want to make sure that you are well dressed in professional looking clothes (mainly plain stuff, not loud colours, not ripped jeans, etc) your hair is neatly done, your hands and nails are clean and you try to minimise the visibility of any tattoos or piercings.

It’s not about denying your identity or pretending to be someone that you’re not. It’s about showing a potential boss who you’ve never met before, that you are serious about getting a job with them, because you’ve taken some time and effort to look professional when you go to meet them.

Once you’ve been working in a job for a little while and people get to know you, then you can judge for yourself whether it’s appropriate (depending on the workplace) to wear what you normally would.