Sex and Your Job Search 2013: A Guide to Scoring Your Dream Job (12 page)

Please do not wear red. A very qualified woman who was doing extremely well in our interview started to blush near the end when she was stuck on an answer. With her fire-engine red shirt and her red face, she looked like a squirming, guilty seven-year-old who had eaten all of the vanilla frosting out of the jar. She wasn’t hired because my boss had a “bad feeling about her.”

Women have fantastic options for shoes. The preference is leather, and the colors range from black, brown, navy, to green. Flats are fine, as are up to three-inch heels. Don’t go too pointy. Showing a little toe won’t be the end of the interview, but try to dress conservatively.

Your belt should match your shoes. A black belt goes with black or gray shoes. A brown belt goes with browns and beiges. With a navy suit you may have several options.

Accessories ought to be conservative and kept simple. Jewelry should be subtle and professional, whether a necklace or earrings. Wedding bands are fine. Wearing too much jewelry or rocking a very glitzy outfit shows that you have money to spare and don’t need a job. Please no jewelry on your toes or ankles, or jewelry that makes noise. Visible body piercings, aside from earrings, can come across as defiant and send the wrong message.

A briefcase can also be taken to the interview as it makes a strong statement of professionalism. If you choose the briefcase, try to avoid bringing a purse. Try to minimize the bulk as much as you can.

Makeup as a rule should be subtle. Neutral colors are best for lipstick. Brighter lipstick can smudge or wear unevenly. People tend to be nervous when interviewing and they can make funny movements with their mouths. If you drink from a water bottle or Styrofoam cup, these actions can have an effect on lipstick.

Ladies, here is a list of things you should never wear: low-rise jeans, low-cut shirts, club outfits, fishnet stockings, and strong perfume. Also, take off heavy outer clothing once you are indoors.

ACCESSORIZE WISELY

Bringing a black padfolio that contains extra resumes and letters of recommendation creates a professional persona. This would be like showing up to a date or business meeting in a Bentley. It shows that you have class and mean business. These items also show that you are prepared and have thought ahead in case there is a problem.

Routinely, hiring managers forget to bring your resume or they invite additional interviewers at the last minute. Anticipate their needs during the interview by bringing extra resumes.

Inside the padfolio, you should have the following:

• Extra resumes.

• Written on the bottom right of the pad of paper should be the seven key words from the seven stories you will tell about how awesome you are. These key words can jog your memory if you forget. We talk more about this in Chapter 8.

• A pad of paper with a list of questions to ask the interviewer at the top of the page. We will go over the top questions to ask in Chapter 12.

• Keep one or two breath mints tucked away in the padfolio for stale breath. I prefer Tic Tacs or Mentos, as they travel well.

DRESS UP DOESN'T MEAN PAY UP

I am very sympathetic to how the economy has negatively affected so many families in this country. I also support frugal college students striving for the American dream. That being the case, listed below are several options for finding deals on interview outfits.

Check out these discount store options if money is tight: Marshalls, TJ Maxx, and Burlington Coat Factory. They have serious discounts on suits and professional clothes.

In bigger cities, I recommend stopping by the discount stores that are close to high-end shopping centers. I personally have never seen a better selection of suits and ties at incredible discounts than at the Marshalls by South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California. South Coast Plaza is an upscale luxury shopping center that has been featured on
The OC
and
90210
. When I first moved to California and started my HR career, I bought all of my business clothes at that Marshalls.

Target is also a good choice. A friend recently picked up a great suit for under $125. He matched it with a sixty-dollar tie and was hearing “atta boy” and “looking good” all day at his public relations job. H&M also has low-priced modern suits and outfits.

Another angle is attending holiday sales at department stores in order to save
big
. I bought a suit at Macy’s over Memorial Day weekend and saved around 35% off full price. I chose that time to open a Macy’s charge card, which saved me another 10%. Altogether I purchased a dark gray suit, one dress shirt, and a tie at 45% off. I really needed that outfit
and
I really needed to save as much as I could. “Nailed it!” as they say.

For brand-name shoes at outlet store prices, check out Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW).

Nordstrom Rack clearance store has high-end options at reduced prices, including suits, shirts, ties, and shoes.

Sometimes great deals can be had at thrift stores such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, or religiously affiliated thrift stores. I’ve seen brand-name items when I’ve gone to these stores and here’s an example of why: I gained twenty pounds after shoulder surgery a year ago. Some of it was muscle and some of it was “insulation.” So the seven brand-name dress shirts I had bought three months prior to my accident were donated to a local thrift store that helps create jobs and grow the community.

Quick Tip:
As I write this, I remember the despair I went through during the hiring process at my current employer a decade ago. I thought, “Well, if I wear my one and only suit when I go in to apply for a job and drop off my resume, then I don’t have another one for the job interview.”

If you have just one suit and are worried about wearing it twice during the job search, do the following. Switch up your tie and shirt, or blouse, and you are all good. That’s what I did ten years ago and what I’ve seen other people do. Then it becomes a non-issue. HR reps and hiring managers are like the honey badger in the famous YouTube clip. They don’t care if you wear your suit twice.

One of my favorite colleagues, who we’ll call Danielle, was attending a college on the East Coast before we hired her. But she was on vacation in California when we called her for a phone interview. We realized this halfway through our phone call and asked her to stop by the next day. She gladly agreed to modify her vacation plans.

Danielle arrived in a nice charcoal-gray suit and light-blue button-down shirt. She appeared confident and pleasant, even though she later admitted to being terrified.

The interview went swimmingly, and at the end we asked her if she always went on vacation with a business suit. She said that she knew first impressions were important and that she’d gone to a department store in the local mall and bought the reasonably priced suit right before the interview. She then giggled with her infectious laugh that we have come to love.

We were impressed with her resourcefulness, flexibility with travel plans, and her desire to impress, among other things. So we hired her!

People in HR have seen everything. Ripped T-shirts, disco outfits, booty shorts, five-inch stripper heels, tight sweatpants from the eighties, and cleavage down to belly buttons. Ninety-nine percent of them were not hired.

It does not matter if you want a CEO position or a housekeeping job,
wear a suit
. The only caveat to this rule is if you know for certain that a corporate culture is very relaxed. Then lose the tie, but keep the suit. I can’t tell you how many times co-workers have asked me, “Who was that person in the suit? What were they applying for?” The reason being is that most HR reps are looking for qualified people for their own positions and they hope a co-worker may share a good person with them. People notice well-dressed people.

A guy in his mid-twenties rolled into my friend Rob’s HR department wearing white khakis and a very faded green polo shirt. He appeared overly confident and asked about his application for a director position. Rob wanted to say “Really!?!” like Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers used to do in their famous skits. But he didn’t. Rob just cut the conversation short and rejected his application as soon as he got back to his desk.

WHAT NOT TO EAT BEFORE AN INTERVIEW

Have you seen the movie
Along Came Polly
with Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller? There is a scene where Ben Stiller’s character eats spicy food at a Moroccan restaurant and sweats so much that he soaks his shirt. Not only that, his irritable bowl syndrome acts up and after the meal his stomach sounds like a grizzly bear. He hurries to the bathroom in the restaurant only to find it occupied. The guy inside the stall says, “I’m gonna be here all night, dude.” When he finally makes it to the bathroom in Polly’s apartment, there is no toilet paper, which leads to a comedic disaster. Whatever could go wrong does go wrong. Don’t let this happen to you on a job interview.

While most interviewing books do not make mention of what
not
to eat before an interview, I feel it is important to provide a few recommendations to save you from embarrassing emergencies. Here is some advice that can be applied to interviewing
and
your entire career.

I would strongly suggest eating bland food starting two days before making contact with a company or interviewing. Stay away from spicy food including salsa, peppers, onions, and garlic. I love Mexican and Thai food, but I plan my food carefully around important meetings to avoid any uncomfortable situations.

Just to be on the safe side and prevent any discomfort, think about taking Gas-X or a similar product the day of your interview. I’ve known people who do the same before a date. Maybe keep a Gas-X-type pill in your padfolio or purse in case you are asked to a spicy lunch during an all-day interview session.

Chewing gum can contribute to gas pains. When you chew gum, you swallow a lot of air. That air either comes out of your mouth through burping or out the other end. I wish I had known this when I watched
Titanic
(three hours fourteen minutes) in a theater. Breath mints are recommended for interviews and dates.

Athletes and dieters should avoid overloading on protein powder, protein shakes, or eggs. Too much protein can contribute to a sulfuric-type release that will offend almost anyone.

Quick Tip:
A little coffee first thing on the day of an interview will give you a little bit of mental pep as well as accelerate bowel function. There, I said it. But don’t drink too much coffee, or else you may start speaking gibberish.

I mention bowel function because I’ve had a few applicants disappear for ten to fifteen minutes in between multi-person interviews. While it’s not the norm, you would be surprised how often it happens. You know what’s worse than a sick applicant who sneezes into his hand and then shakes yours? Shaking someone’s hand after you know they’ve just used the restroom. Plan your bathroom schedule.

And if you are super paranoid, Pepto-Bismol, or the generic equivalent, will stop you up. I’ve taken a couple of surf trips to Mexico and Central America and have used Pepto as a preventative measure for indigestion.

I suggest staying away from multi-vitamins the day of the interview, as they will make you thirstier than normal—which can lead to drinking more and going to the bathroom more. Take a multi-vitamin the day before and leave it at that.

It is not good etiquette to bring a gigantic water bottle or a 64-ounce soda bottle to an interview. If you want to be like Ron Burgundy and stay classy, carry an eight- to twelve-ounce water bottle with you.

Important Note:
Reputable organizations will provide you with water because they know that taking a drink gives you time to organize your thoughts. As a show of compassion, well-trained interviewers will take a drink at the same time you do, so that you do not feel uncomfortable with the silence.