If you're getting ready to search for a summer job or permanent employment after graduation, take a look in the mirror.
"You must make a good first impression," says Judy Hibbs, a family and consumer sciences specialist with the University of Georgia Extension Service.
"Your first impression must say to the potential employer that you're honest, reliable and friendly," Hibbs says. "You want them to know you get along with others and you're capable of handling the job."
The final impression will eventually be built on your resume, skills and knowledge. But the employer's first judgment will be based on how you look.
"A good appearance cannot compensate for lack of skills and knowledge," Hibbs says. "But if you are well-qualified, it may give you the edge you need to get the job.
"If an employer has several applicants with equal qualifications," she says, "the one who's most appropriately dressed may get the job."
In choosing what to wear for that all-important interview, consider the image the company wants to portray. Then think about the position for which you're applying. You wouldn't dress the same for a job at a car wash as you would for a teaching position.
A company's image could be formal and sophisticated, or relaxed and casual. The product or service it offers will give you the best clue on how a company wants to appear
"Banks, stockbrokers, insurance firms and law firms -- those dealing with financial and legal matters -- want to present a conservative image," Hibbs says.
"On the other hand, firms dealing with glamour, fashion and advertising will want a nonconservative image," she says.
How formal is the company? Its size and location, its customers, will help you define it.
Usually small businesses or those in small towns are less formal than larger businesses or those in cities, Hibbs says.
">Most companies will dress in a manner that makes their clientele feel comfortable," she says. "If they deal with the public, they will want to appear helpful and friendly. So dress will be more informal.
"The formality of the company," she says, "usually dictates the basic style of clothes its employees wear."
Before you answer that ad, check the mirror. If you look like part of the company, you just might be right.
