“What should I wear?” is a common question asked when people are headed for their first interview.
For this people who identify as male, the answer is likely to come down to a smart suit, shirt and tie (if you’re going for “office-type” jobs like lawyer, banker, accountant etc) through jacket, smart casual shirt with no tie plus smart trousers (for jobs in creative industries) to tee shirt and jeans for that achingly trendy tech startup.
But for women the choice is seldom so simple, especially towards the smart end of things.
This article (Guardian, no paywall) has some ideas. All beyond most student budgets, but they may provide some inspiration!
Great to see that the Guardian made a guide for this. Heard a lot of women at my last workplace complaining about this, so I guess that it really is a common issue!
when i was going through interviews, i was always conflicted whether my outfit was too formal or not?
@sienna - if in doubt, too formal is almost always better than too informal. Virtually no one is going to “mark you down” for wearing formal business atire to an interview, while too casual is easily seen as “didn’t make an effort / understand the nature of our organisation”. The exception here could be certain creative jobs and jobs in small tech companies, but even here, being at least a bit formal is better.
If you have any doubt, ask! You won’t be penalised for doing so.
i agree!! i always find myself ending up dressing more formal than the interviewers but in the end, exactly it wont be penalised - probably a better impression that i am serious.