Before graduate students run off to a tailor

I have said before that giving advice about interviewing for jobs often lands the adviser in a tangle, not least because there are so few jobs now that anything might knock you out of the running.

However.

After reading this morning's career advice column in IHE, let me just say this:

1.  I am a woman.  (We need to get this out of the way.)

2.  I have sat on several interview committees.

3.  We have interviewed many, many women.

4.  Those women were not usually wearing suits. 

5.  Unless we were considered somehow unworthy of a suit, they presumably were not wearing suits to any of their other interviews, either. 

5.  When I have interviewed, I have not worn a suit.  I have worn professional dress clothes--a blazer, a nice blouse, etc.  (I do own one skirt suit, which I had to buy when I was called in for a campus fly-out when I was on the wrong side of the country.  Otherwise, I would have worn the aforementioned professional dress clothes.)  And yet, I am employed. 

6.  If you are interviewing at Drew University, and the author is on your search committee, then you might need to wear a suit. 

7.  Otherwise, dress appropriately for a professional situation, and do not worry about this sort of thing.

(We will put to one side the author's somewhat puzzling belief that a woman who is well-dressed, and yet not wearing a matching suit, fails to exude the appropriate "professionalism," given that women do not necessarily wear suits in professional situations, or that a well-dressed but non-suit-wearing candidate is not taking the job search "seriously."  Really? Really?)

 

 

 

Comments

[Nancee Reeves]

Thanks so much for this! I go on the job market next year and was very much not looking forward to having to wear a suit. I was told the less feminine I look the better. Blah! I was not planning on wearing pink bunnies on my blouse, but what's wrong with a bit of style?

[Brian]

I've been on several search committees and I don't care whether a candidate, male or female, is wearing a suit as long as they're dressed professionally. And I find Prof. Nichols's insistence on wearing a suit particularly odd given how informally most academics dress when performing their actual jobs. I wear a jacket and tie when teaching undergrad classes, and I'm usually the most formally dressed person in my department of 29, other than the chair and the office staff.

[zhava]

Mmm... depends on what you're interviewing for. I'd hire a casually dressed and unkempt applicant who had the smarts, experience and attitude way faster than a suit-wearing but all-round less awesome candidate. IN FACT... I'd probably be prejudiced in favor of the casual him or her, because clearly that person is more concerned with substance over appearance and has the hutzpah to carry it off.

Once hired I might have a word about more formal attire if the occasion arises. But to pass over a great applicant for the 'crime' of being suit-less or some such dress offence could be self-defeating.

[Janice]

I think I had two suits when I was interviewing (I sewed one myself out of Liberty remnants I'd scored during a UK research trip) but I also wore jackets with dresses, had a nice blazer that could coordinate with various skirts and so on.

Dress professionally. Behave professionally. Even then, you don't know if you'll be in a situation where someone on the committee has an irrational dislike of women with nail polish or men with facial hair or something else equally irrelevant.

[zhava]

I find the sensitivities about dress and overall appearance in interview settings as expressed by some of the commentators on this thread a tad odd to be honest.

Interviewers with "an irrational dislike of women with nail polish" don't have their institution's best interests in mind if they give themselves permission to bring such infantile prejudices into the the interviewing process. In my experience most employers are looking for the best... not the right wrapping or cover.