Dress for Work vs. Dress for Interview

I laugh continuously at the tenuous debate over what to where and when reference work. Is this the red carpet, are we attending a formal reception, do we need to know the dress according to what time of the day the marriage ceremony is? It is simply another issue to add to the useless list (that is becoming exceedingly long) that are thrown on to the shoulders of workers across the country by mindless drones in corporate America that think up what is the formal dress code for their company. Are you serious - is there one anymore? How do you define formal - black tie, suit, or jeans and a blazer? All three to some are formal, so what is reason behind having all of this debate. I even read on one of the largest job sites a recent post about the subject, can it be that difficult to understand? What to wear and when?

Let us start with dress for interview - simple, easy, straight forward. Dress to impress always. No matter the environment unless specifically told you place on a suit for men, women have more liberty but remain conservative and professional. This is the simple answer, not the only answer. Some environments such as start ups or certain manufacturing or process driven companies do not want to see suits, you can look too stuffy or not able to roll your sleeves up and do the work. Start ups are abandoning the entire professional culture so a suit is a slap in the face. If you are uncertain - call HR or if you are using a recruiter, talk to them about the culture and what is appropriate. 9 times out of 10 it will be a suit.

Now dress for work, sometimes not as easy but should not take a whole lot of time to digest and understand. Business casual - vague and ambiguous term that means nothing offers no truth into what management really wants. It was a conceived branding line by HR to have their companies’ look and feel more approachable and laid back so candidates wanted to come work there. Easiest way to handle this - come to work dressed like you did for the interview day 1. Once you are there, look around - I guarantee you will see a great disparity in what people are wearing depending on their role and success at the company. Look for people in similar roles, people that are doing well with the company, and most importantly what your boss is wearing. From there you should be able to figure it out.