Dress for the Job You Want, Not the Job You Have

The saying goes “Dress for Success.” I contemplated whether covering this subject is still necessary in a post-pandemic world where the power suit has been replaced by pajama pants and I came to the conclusion that for some of us who won’t be blessed to work remotely forever, this can be useful information. Additionally, if you can learn this lesson on your own, it will help young supervisors, like I once was, avoid having to have the dreaded conversation my boss forced me to have with a direct report when I joined the team in my first managerial role.

It’s Week One on the job and my boss pulls me to the side and asks me to sit down with my new direct report and talk to her about her work attire. In my mind, I’m thinking “this girl has worked here for more than a year! You mean to tell me, no one has told her that her attire is not appropriate?” Maybe it was mentioned and the message didn’t stick but yes, sometimes no one is going to be kind enough, bold enough or invested enough to try to point out areas where you can improve. After all, it is a challenging conversation to have without making someone feel bad or judged. I’ll admit that I probably didn’t do very well in that initial “heart to heart,” but through the years my attire talk has improved and I’ve added the following personal examples to drive home the point that proper work attire matters.

Dress for the Occasion and the Weather

Before my career in public relations, I dabbled with dreams of becoming a news anchor. During the summer of my freshman year, I landed an internship with WPLG 10 in my hometown of Miami, and I was super excited. The dress code for interns was flexible, but they did require a certain business attire in order to a ride along with the reporters. Unfortunately, you couldn’t plan for what the news assignment may be for the day, making it really hard to dress for the occasion. One day, I wore a button down, long sleeve blue blouse and a pencil skirt and I got pulled to go with the camera man to the Miami Dolphins practice facility. My outfit was fine except that my brilliant butt didn’t eat any breakfast! Here I was out in the blistering hot Miami sun on the sidelines of a football field with heat radiating off the turf and I instantly began suffering from heat exhaustion. It was so bad that I quietly walked over to the sidelines and puked in a trash can. Someone noticed I didn’t look so good and gave me a bottle of water. After a few minutes in the shade, I pulled it together and managed to help the cameraman ask the players questions in the locker room (which is a whole other story for another day!). Mission accomplished, however, clearly wearing a short sleeve blouse to account for the weather (and hydrating) would’ve been helpful.

After that day, I think I went to the total opposite extreme and decided to wear my FAMU polo shirt and some khakis to the station on a Friday. I was scheduled to work the assignment desk and thought I looked professional, I’m showing school spirit, and I’m comfortable. Good, right? Wrong! On this day reporter Peter D’Oench invited me to tag along with him down to the courthouse for a story he was working on. He called my name to jump in the van then took one good look at my outfit and changed his mind. I simply wasn’t dressed appropriately to blend into the environment where he was headed!

After this I quickly realized that I needed to look the part, not only for the job I wanted, but also to be aligned with the professionals I was going to be around. I needed to be prepared for any and every opportunity because my attire was a reflection on the station and when I looked like I could be the reporter, sometimes the crew would allow interns to shoot our own standup so that we could cut together our own segment. Thus, not dressing appropriately cost me an opportunity to add to my reel!

Your Wardrobe Doesn’t Have to Be Built in a Day

I can relate to not having a lot of money to invest in clothes even though the desire to look the part is there. My first job after graduation was working at a university, so you can imagine how difficult it was for me to not look like a student! I couldn’t afford a whole wardrobe of suits starting out either, so here’s what I did: I learned how to mix and match suit separates into different looks. Then every time I got paid at the end of the month (yes, once a month!) I would go to the mall and buy another suit. This process worked wonders as I would slowly switch out my “church dresses” for suits. Petite Sophisticate used to be my favorite place to shop! I could go in there and buy a suit jacket, the pants and skirt plus a few different blouses and scarves (that used to be my thing) and have a variety of looks.

Please also note that professional attire does not have to be designer label attire. Personally, I’m a Macy’s girl and I hunt for sales. You won’t get any brownie points for paying full price. The goal is to look like a million bucks, not spend it!

Dress on Brand for Your Organization

If I worked for the Miami Dolphins, I would incorporate a lot of teal into my wardrobe. If I worked at the American Heart Association, I’d switch to red. Since I work in higher education PR right now, I always make it a point to adjust to my wardrobe based on the colors of the institution where I am employed, and I do so willingly and with enthusiasm. Why, do you ask? Obviously, it’s not a mandatory job requirement in the employee handbook, but it does send the message that you are an invested team player.

I’ll never forget working at one institution when the board appointed a new president, and my team coordinated an alumni meet and greet event a couple of weeks after the new leader started. Everyone was excited for this new chapter in the school’s history and many people travelled from all across the country for the occasion. The alumni were all decked out in their finest orange and green attire, the school’s colors, and in walks the president…in an all-blue outfit! No, not a navy blue that could be confused for black….it was a bright blue. You could hear the room make a collective gasp!

You may be thinking, what’s the big deal? It's just clothes, right? Well, it goes back to the title of the article, “dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” As the new leader of an organization, the stakeholders expected the president to look…presidential. Fortunately, this first impression wasn’t a sticking point for long.

Look like the Director While You Make Copies

Fast forward a decade later and I once again found myself having the attire talk with my team. This time, I was mentally ready, I had my examples and I approached the subject like this in a team meeting: “This conversation may not apply to you, but feel free to take anything from it that resonates with you….” When you already dress for the part of the role you want to receive, people don’t have to look at the outer appearance and wonder what will change once the promotion takes place. They can skip the cover of your book and go directly to the work product. Further, you’ll already have invested in the clothes so there’ll be no need to do a mad dash to get ready when the time comes.

After this talk, one of my team members took the advice to heart although I wasn’t even referring to him. He invested in a few more slacks and blazers. When he met with reporters for media interviews, he wore his blazer and slacks instead of a just a polo and jeans. It wasn’t long before a director in another department took notice of the change and said something about it to him and to me. “I notice a change in you,” the director said. “Keep it up!” Not too long after that, I lost this team member because he was scooped up to work on the democratic campaign of a future president of the United States of America. Now, I won’t say it was my leadership and sound career advice that led to this opportunity…but I won’t say it didn’t help!

In closing, if you’re going to be an entrepreneur and work for yourself, all these tips may not apply to you. Or you may luck up and work for an apparel company and get to wear $200 sneakers and track suits every day (send me some product, please!) However, for the rest of us Corporate/Agency/Studio/C-suite in the making types, don’t quote me on this! Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

*Got an attire tip that I missed? Drop it in the comments!