Interview Appearance, how important is it?

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invisibledemon

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so seriously, how important would you say appearance is during a job interview?
what percentage would you say the average is? does it count for about half the whole of the interview?
to you, could it be enough to base your decision to hire on?

i was instructed to find a few new people to hire, bc we cant keep up with higher demands.
found one guy immediatly, he sounded great on the phone, respectful, used "sir" while speaking with me. (i dont really care about that, im 21. dont really care if im called sir) and sounded like he carried himself well over the phone.
asked him to come in and talk with us, show him around, see if he would like it.
well i hired him, seemed like he wanted to work and would fit in.

got another call, guy was interested, sounded alright on the phone.
but you can get a better feel of them in person.
so i ask him to stop in sometime soon to talk about the job, show him around. see if it would work out.

i step out for a second, and come back in, he came in right before me.

The guy was decked out in G wear. not saying anything bad about that choice of clothing, but come on.
straight billed hat to the side, baggy ass oversized shirt and pants.

this wasnt my basis for not hiring the guy, it was just the first impression that he gave me. we work for a company that deals with a lot of upper corporate type people, not saying that thats all they deal with, but they get their fair share of them.

when i came to interview for the job back in august, i was instructed by my boss to just wear a tshirt and jeans to the interview. said he didnt care. but i still showed up in slacks and a short sleeved button up.

why would you come to an interview dressed like that.

personally, i kinda took it as disrespectful. to show up wanting me to hire him looking like that. nothing he wore looked halfway respectable.

we are a casual type workplace, but they want us to remain somewhat professional, i usually just wear black pants that arent baggy and a plain tshirt.

as i said before this wasnt my reasoning for not giving him the job.
i was just wondering what other people felt about the appearance thing in job interviews, from the employers point of view and the applicants.
 
yeah, but i really dont care about hats, i usually wear something on my head to keep my hair out of my face. but a straight billed hat, tags still attached, and to the side?

i really dont know if i was supposed to take him seriously or not.
 
What an idiot LOL.

If I was in your position I woulda been like "So how you like the place dawg?" hahahaha
 
its a fucking job interview

if thats how you want to dress on a regular day of your life, fine, do whatever the fuck you want

but at a fucking job interview you should look like you want the damn job

a general rule is: dress at least one level above the dress code (dont go too high though... wearing a suit to an interview for a job in a garage isnt going to get you anywhere)
if its a machine shop --- dress casual
if its casual --- dress business casual
if its business casual --- wear a tie
if its a tie environment --- wear a suit
if its a suit environment --- wear a really fucking nice suit :lol:

your appearance should be as neat as you can manage

basically look like you want the fucking job
 
I dress nice to interview for a job at a restaurant. Like seriously, what is 5 minutes to change to make a good first impression.
 
What an idiot LOL.

If I was in your position I woulda been like "So how you like the place dawg?" hahahaha


lmao, seriously though, first thing i did was walk up to him, look at him, intriduce myself, shake hand, and asked him: "so do you always dress gangster for a job interview?"
he said no.:mellow:
 
lmao, seriously though, first thing i did was walk up to him, look at him, intriduce myself, shake hand, and asked him: "so do you always dress gangster for a job interview?"
he said no.:mellow:


conversation should have went something like this:
you -- "ok, who are you??"
him -- "im ___ im here for a job interview"
you -- "really?!?! dressed like that?!?!"
him -- "uhh.... well.... i.... uhhh...."
you -- "i wouldnt want you delivering me my pizza dressed like that!! get the fuck out of my office!!!"
 
its a fucking job interview

if thats how you want to dress on a regular day of your life, fine, do whatever the fuck you want

but at a fucking job interview you should look like you want the damn job

a general rule is: dress at least one level above the dress code (dont go too high though... wearing a suit to an interview for a job in a garage isnt going to get you anywhere)
if its a machine shop --- dress casual
if its casual --- dress business casual
if its business casual --- wear a tie
if its a tie environment --- wear a suit
if its a suit environment --- wear a really fucking nice suit :lol:

your appearance should be as neat as you can manage

basically look like you want the fucking job
hit the nail on the head. that is exactly how it should be. i follow this rule to a "T".
lmao, seriously though, first thing i did was walk up to him, look at him, intriduce myself, shake hand, and asked him: "so do you always dress gangster for a job interview?"
he said no.:mellow:
maybe it was hit best clothing. haha, anyways, what type of job was it for?
 
i'm gonna go on a limb and say that he wanted the job so bad he showed up from wherever he was (you made it sound like he was there a few minutes after the phone call). also, your invite over the phone sounded casual ('...show up sometime soon, show you around, blah blah') and it didn't say 'we'd like to interview you for this position.'

that all said, he coulda tucked his shirt in and took off the hat, or at least mugged someone in the parking lot and stolen their dockers for 10 min :D
 
hell he coulda at least put on a nice pair of jeans with a belt and a polo shirt thats tucked in and NO hat. i wouldnt have hired him either....
 
i'm gonna go on a limb and say that he wanted the job so bad he showed up from wherever he was (you made it sound like he was there a few minutes after the phone call). also, your invite over the phone sounded casual ('...show up sometime soon, show you around, blah blah') and it didn't say 'we'd like to interview you for this position.'

that all said, he coulda tucked his shirt in and took off the hat, or at least mugged someone in the parking lot and stolen their dockers for 10 min :D



no, i talked to him about 2hours before he came in.
then he called and said he was on his way.
and showed up like that.
its casual, but its an upscale type place. casual, not gangster.
and i did actually say, come on in, let me interview you, and show you around and we'll see how it goes.

and lol at the last part. my boss enjoyed that,
 
When I was in the hiring game, I'd look for a clean, pressed appearance. Something professional but not over the top.

If you showed up in a t-shirt and jeans (or a hat for that matter) you blew your interview before you ever opened your mouth.
 
well its not that kinda environment. jeans and a tshirt would have been great. thats all we wear to work, but we wear jeans that fit, and shirts that fit.
not ones that drown us and sagging.
fucking dumbass.
 
Uh considering that I can to an interview dressed to the nines, complete with the nice cuff links, tie, suit, brook's brother's french cuff shirt, nice new or polished shoes, and just dressed to the nines in general when I'm still in my senior year of college should tell you something.

Spending $500 on an interviewing outfit would be a great investment if you're looking to crack into the professional world. You have to look the part if you're going to try to interview into a $60k+ job a year.

Anything below that and you should still be in a suit and tie, but you don't have to go quite as extreme.
 
Word.


When i applied for a job at lowe's as a team leader, I showed up in an dark suit, camel coat, and shined shoes. To say the least, I was the most paid team leader on the store floor.
 
i overdressed for my first interviews outta college. my impression afterwards was i coulda pulled off biz casual, f the suit, it came off panicky noob. this last round of interviewing i had some wardrobe malfunctions; the wrap shirt i wore to one managed to gape the entire interview so i was kinda absently tugging on it (bad) and then i leaned against my car to do some damn thing on the way to another interview while wearing a white button down and got a blackish smudge across the titters that wasn't super obvious but made me self conscious (sucks for interviewing), and lastly i found out that this one top i have which is a rocking emerald green gets tighter when i sit down and shoves my girls up like 2 more inches, so i was scared i looked like a damn ho. but i got the job :D

yeah turtlenecks and blazers from now on. bleh.
 
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