Your appearance plays a more important role than you may realize. I stress this with data processors because input from specialists in Robert Half offices leaves little doubt that dress and appearance rank low on the priority list of many DPers looking to advance in the field. Although independent studies I've commissioned indicate that appearance is not especially important in the minds of data processing managers who do the hiring, I tend to question those findings, if only because none of us wants to admit we sometimes do judge a book by its cover. "It's what's inside that counts" usually sums up our public posture on the subject. The fact is, we all respond to the way a person presents himself or herself to us, particularly when we're making a decision about having that person work with us on a daily basis.
I think the major difference lies in the criterion by which we judge appearance. It has nothing to do with expensive clothing. It does have to do with clothing kept neat and clean, because that reflects upon what people think of themselves. If we don't consider ourselves worthy of shining our shoes and, by extension, don't consider the interview we're about to undergo important enough to put a shine on whatever shoes we're wearing, it says just that-this isn't important, nor am I. By the same token, sporting a beard is not unusual in our society, but not bothering to keep it trimmed, along with our hair, makes a subtle point about how we perceive ourselves and the world in which we function. Personal cleanliness and neatness, or lack of them, send out a symbolic message.
There's another reason for looking your best when going on an interview, and that has to do with the psychological impact it has upon you. If you're uncomfortable with the way you look, it will directly and adversely influence the way you conduct yourself during the interview. Candidates who arrive at an interview with spots on their tie or blouse are distracted by them. Instead of concentrating on the questions being asked and the answers to be given, these people keep shifting in the chair to make the spots less obvious.
The whole question of how to dress for an interview can be summed up in a couple of rules:
- It doesn't matter if all the people in the data-processing department, to whom you're applying for a job, come to work in jeans and open shirts, or in slacks and sweaters. For you, not yet a member of that department, the appropriate thing is to wear business attire - a suit or dress, neatly pressed, clean, and properly fitted. Once you are hired, you will adapt your dress to fit in with those around you (only a little better), but for that first impression, it's safer to slightly overdress. You can never go wrong by being slightly overdressed at a party at which everyone else is dressed casually, but you will certainly stand out if you arrive at a black-tie affair wearing jeans.
