A few weeks ago I interviewed for an office job. I sweated bullets and answered the questions as best I knew how, and I guess I made a decent impression as I was just called back for a second round of interviews.
Here’s the issue. At the first interview I wore a suit—my only suit. The second interview is actually three separate interviews: a written test of some sort (gulp), an “activity,” and the following day a formal interview again. I only have the one suit. I’m worried that if I wear it again I’ll look like a penniless college grad (true enough) or a noob who doesn’t know how to dress.
Me: fat balding man. The “slacks with a Oxford shirt and tie” look that seems to be the stereotypical office wear does not look good on me as, like most fat men, my belly hangs over the belt. I’m thinking Stephen Root’s character on Office Space here.
The job: state government office, working with the public on a daily basis. Professional attire is definitely required although for those actually working there a full suit probably isn’t.
So I’m conflicted. Do I wear the same suit again? I could probably do that on day 2 and get away with if I wore a different tie and shirt than I did on my first interview some weeks ago. But day 1 is vexing me. It’s a small office and I’m fairly confident the same panel will be interviewing me both days, and indeed will be the same panel that interviewed me earlier this month (it’s a really small office). I don’t have a sport coat or similar piece that would qualify as “business casual.”
What’s the Dope’s take on this? Give a terrified job hunter some pointers here.
The whole point of men’s suits is to be non-descript and generic. The difference between “the same suit”, and “a different, identical looking suit” would not be noticed except by the most astute observer (and they wouldn’t mention it).
My boss and I just finished a round of interviews. Everything was by phone because it’s impossible to do in-person interviews. In fact, we know one of the interviewees was in her pajamas because it was midnight where she was and 8:00 am where we are. (And she told us!)
What’s the job? If you are interviewing for a position on a men’s fashion magazine, you can worry. If you are interviewing for an IT job around here, the response would be “suit?” Most people won’t notice. Anyhow, it is okay to be poor unless you are claiming you know how to make lots of money.
Or, pretend you have five copies of the same suit. That’s what Stanley Kubrick had.
Story from Agel’s Making of 2001: his staff decided Kubrick needed new suits, and so arranged a visit with a top London tailor. Kubrick entered to find the tailors lined up ready to measure and fit him. Halfway to them he paused at a rack, picked up a suit, said “I’ll take five” and turned around and left. (Story from memory - I can look it up if anyone cares.)
If it’s a job where you would be expected to wear a suit every day, getting a different suit might matter. But if it’s not that job, wear the same suit. Clean, pressed, and fairly well-fitting is enough. It doesn’t have to be novel as well.
I actually did that, arriving for my first interview early and watching the employee entrance from across the street. The issue with that approach is, at least on the day I was there, is that every employee was female so wearing the same clothes would likely be counter-productive.
Which is actually one of the reasons I was concerned about this: according to women I’ve talked to women pay more attention to what an interviewee is wearing than a man will. I remember years ago I had a job that entailed doing first-round interviews. Joining me in the questioning was a middle-aged woman. I remember we had a young man, probably no older than 20, come in to drop off a resume (back when people did that). He was proactive and asked the receptionist if he could introduce himself to whoever did the hiring, so she sent him back to my office where on that day the other interviewer happened to be in chatting with me. This young man had dressed in a sport coat and tie, written a cover letter tailored to each business he was visiting that day, and made an effort to meet me in person rather than just dropping off a resume and moving on. For someone so young I was highly impressed with his professionalism and assertiveness, and he made an excellent first impression.
However, my colleague pointed out as soon as he left that the young man was wearing jeans with his sport coat and tie, something I had not noticed. They must have been black. She complained that such a thing was sloppy and disrespectful. I rolled my eyes and put his resume on the top of my call-back pile, but the incident has stuck with me: my colleague had no desire to hire an perfectly qualified young man because he mismatched his clothing choices while searching for a job.
Should someone with such an attitude be on the hiring committee of the job I’m hoping to get, I don’t want to be the guy who stands out as being unprofessional. If they have a list of “cons” for each candidate, I don’t want “doesn’t know how to dress for a professional office job” to be one of them. If I don’t get hired I want it to be for something a bit more substantial.
That being said, the consensus is clearly to wear the same suit with different shirt and tie, something I can certainly do.
