How to Dress for a Job Interview - The New York Times

“It’s sort of like you’re dressing your future self,” says Shaquan Hoke, an employment and personal-development coach in New York. Do your research — whether online or in person — about the culture of your potential employer. A hedge fund, for example, will have different clothing expectations than an art gallery. Choose something that makes you feel comfortable and powerful — a version of yourself that already has the job. Hoke often tells clients to opt for a classic white shirt, a pencil skirt or a blazer and slacks that can be paired to look like a suit. Wear dark-colored shoes you could skip in. “If your feet hurt, it will show,” she says.

In her early 20s, Hoke was a single mother with five children under 8 when she became homeless, despite working two jobs as a home health aide for elderly people. Her path to better wages, housing and self-confidence turned in part on a gray pinstripe suit in size 18 that she got at the Queens branch of the nonprofit Dress for Success. “That suit made me feel like a superhero,” she says. “It made me see that I’m worthy of great opportunities.”

Try on your full outfit several days before your interview. Make sure all the buttons work. Look for stains. Do what Hoke calls “the sit-down test” to confirm the outfit functions in the seated position (especially important with skirts). Feel free to wear more brightly colored elements, but don’t go overboard. Like it or not, interviewers pay attention to what interviewees wear. “A judgment is made within the first couple of seconds,” Hoke says.

Hoke got the first job she interviewed for in her new suit as a case manager at an employment-services company helping other women get back in the job market. Nineteen years later, she does similar work leading her own company, Beyond a J.O.B. Inc. (an abbreviation for “Just Over Broke”). Don’t worry if you feel a bit of impostor syndrome. “Self-love and confidence are not something you can take off the rack and put on,” she says. Still, the right outfit can help you project self-worth. It’s enough, Hoke says, if you can look in the mirror and think to yourself, I’m not there right now, but this is the future that I’m walking toward.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/magazine/how-to-dress-for-a-job-interview.html

2020-02-04 10:00:00Z
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