How to Lose a Job Offer

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>As summer 2010 winds down, I can't help but think of the many interns/summer employees/summer associates (undergrad, MBA candidates and JD candidates) who did good work this summer, but who will not be getting offers to return/for permanent employment. For those of you finishing up your summers, please don't be shocked when you are not asked to return if you did not bother to dress appropriately for the office. </p>

<p>Business casual at most companies does not mean (and my husband, at his company, and I, at mine, each saw some of this this summer):</p>

<p>Yoga pants
Flip flops
Shorts
Any fabric that might be used in a sweatshirt, including terry cloth
T-shirts (especially those with questionable messages on them)
Clothing that is too tight, too short or that shows off your belly
Clothing that is stained, torn or shows excessive wear or shoes that look like they have have never been polished since first purchased several years prior
Excessive jewelry
Nail polish in garish colors</p>

<p>Admittedly, the women get it wrong a lot more than the men, even after some coaching from the permanent employees. It is difficult for me to imagine how dressing appropriately for the office has completely eluded so many of the students in and out of our doors this summer. Plenty get it right. How then do too many others do themselves such a disservice? Who failed to teach them that you want to be recognized for the quality of your work and not for your manner of dress? </p>

<p>Admittedly, business casual can be tricky. In addition, almost all of the business dress mistakes that I listed above are perfectly acceptable for out-of-office wear. However, the best advice I can give is to start out conservatively and to use what the permanent employees do as a guide. In fact, it is best to always dress more conservatively than the permanently employees, since, of course, they already have jobs. </p>

<p>The summer 2010 interns/summer employees/summer associates have left their impressions, for better or worse. It is too late for them to make dramatic changes now. Unfortunately, the fallout from some bad personal appearance choices will last for a lot longer than this summer.</p>

2

<p>In my engineering building, people routinely wear t-shirts (I have one on right now), jeans (ditto), sneakers (ditto), shorts. This includes interns and new hires. You might wear a shirt and tie the first day but you lose that habit pretty quickly. We had a new hire Monday and she dressed in a suit but she’ll probably blend in by the end of this week.</p>

<p>I remember my first day in engineering. I came in with a shirt and tie (normal wear for my previous job) and one of the engineers said that it’s okay for today but that if I wore a tie again, he’d take a pair of scissors and cut it off.</p>

<p>Engineers are recognized for the quality of their work and not for their manner of dress.</p>

3

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<p>Get 'em, BCEagle91. ;)</p>

4

<p>I never suggested that the dress for success rules I stated were right for every industry. However, I stand by my advice that it is a good idea to dress overly conservatively at the beginning, and then to tailor your dress to that of the permanent employees with whom you are working.</p>

<p>My husband’s company started telling summer interns this morning whether or not they will be asked back. Apparently, there have been many tears shed so far by applicants whose work was well regarded but who just didn’t “fit in”. My husband said that none of the employees there are shocked by the determinations so far.</p>

5

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<p>Your post seemed like the ten commandments from Moses.</p>

<p>One of the guys that I used to work with dressed in sweatpants or ratty shorts depending on the time of the year. He often wore t-shirts with stains on them. He wore a ratty old coat when it was cold out. He drove a beat-up old Chevette. His office was always a mess and there was popcorn on the floor along with oil stains (it was our group popcorn machine).</p>

<p>He made very big money at a big high-tech company and retired in his early 50s.</p>

<p>BTW, his undergrad GPA was in the 2s.</p>

6

<p>Just dress according to the business you are in. If you are in a service intensive field and interact with clients, you should be in a suit and tie.</p>

<p>If you work in an office and rarely have client interaction, you can wear whatever you want as long as it is appropriate.</p>

<p>Im sure if you are an engineer and you are trying to acquire a new customer, I doubt you will go meet them in a t-shirt and slacks.</p>

7

<p>People where I work think you are interviewing elsewhere in the company when you dress up :)</p>

8

<p>One other thing worth mentioning.</p>

<p>When you start applying for internships/jobs and you ask to be contacted via your cell phone, please sound like an adult on your voicemail.</p>

<p>An intern at my old job had some stupid rap music playing when you called his phone. He wasn’t well liked, and he certainly wasn’t offered a job.</p>

<p>Also, just use your school email or some other adult looking email.</p>

9

<p>In an old job, we had a code word for interviewing: going to the dentist. One guy said that he’d be out for the next three days, reason being that he was going to the dentist - as a joke. One of the main companies that was hiring our employees was on the other coast so going for an interview meant traveling 6,000 miles.</p>

10

<p>Wow. Forget that I offered any insights. Obviously, every workplace is one where people wear t-shirts and sweats. My husband and I must each work someplace outlandish, and I am clearly the misguided one. Let’s hear it for yoga pants and flip flops in corporate America!</p>

11

<p>You referred to “business casual at most companies.” Perhaps some of us work at the companies excluded by your original premise.</p>

12

<p>My son worked for PE firm in a tony coastal city in southern CA where he wore jeans/shorts and flip flops to work every day. His bosses dressed similarly because they own the shop and possibly in rebelling against the east coast dress code they had to endure while they were building their careers. However, they also had a suit in their office just in case there was a work related dinner/lunch/ reception at which they had to meet clients.</p>

<p>Now, S is working at a hedge fund in NYC and he is bringing out his boxed up Brooks Bros clothes again. Similar industry, different culture, different geography. Business casuals on Fridays means khaki slacks instead of dress slacks.</p>

<p>For young interns and new hires, one should dress like your boss or senior management if one day you wish to have their jobs.</p>

13

<p>Dress to match the other employees. I have been a co-op in a plant environment for a year now. I do jeans, tennis shoes, and a polo in the office (I’ll do t-shirts with a small emblem on the chest if I expect to spend a lot of the day outside in the plant.) My point being that you don’t want to be too overdressed. A Brooks Brothers ensemble would probably turn some heads when most of the other engineers are in jeans and the far more numerous blue-collars guys are walking around in fireproof Nomex clothing.</p>

14

<p>My mother works in a rather conservative financial investment firm. Since the influx of new graduates over the last few years, she has been floored by how these young people dress in her office. Sure, she has a few things that she would LOVE to wear (her fur coat for those really, really cold days, for example), but she follows the protocol quite strictly.</p>

<p>One of my friends works in her firm and I have met with her for lunch. When she first started working for them, I was appalled by what she wore- a tissue thin tailored shirt with a cami underneath. I thought, “Is she isn’t fired yet?” My mom has made comments about her clothes to me but not directly to her as this girl worked in a different department. I think she has wisen up since as she has begun to wear more office-appropriate clothing.</p>

<p>All I can say is that I was lucky that my place for internships was more casual, but still dressed up. And my supervisors paid more attention to my work ethic than my clothes. Since it was SO hot in DC and the office was air-conditioned, I always kept a cardigan sweater in the drawer with my work shoes, so when my bosses saw me, I was all ready to work.</p>

<p>However, since I was raised with my parents in the financial industry, I’ve always err on the conservative side when it came to clothes for the office, even for my work study job as an administrative assistant.</p>

15

<p>Dress for the job you want not the job you have.</p>

<p>I work for a think tank in DC and it is absurd how casually some people dress.</p>

16

<p>Everybody at my work wears flipflops tshirts jeans… etc casual. Some people dress very nicely and nobody really cares what other people are wearing to be honest…
My last boss at my previous internship walked around barefoot… hahahaha.</p>

<p>Then again the companies I work for aren’t traditional companies (:slight_smile: Tokyopop…Hulu…)</p>