What You Wear is What I See

“Anyone can get dressed up glamorous, but it’s how people dress in their days off that is most intriguing”- Alexander Wang.

When I was in my graduation I was a part of the placement cell. The interesting part was meeting lots of candidates who assumed that we were from the recruiting company itself which ensured you got an ego boost.

In Jan 2002 there was a leading airline which was conducting interviews in our campus. Three of us were were doing the registrations while sub consciously filtering the candidates and making our own assumptions about who will make it through and who will not. There were two of my seniors who were extremely fair skinned even in terms of European standards and had also been featured as models in a couple of local advertisements. These were our prized horses or at least we assumed, who would not only win the race but show the competition how it is done. Both of them were dressed to impress, even James Bond would pale in comparison to what they were wearing.

They were in one of the early batches to walk in for their group discussion. The group discussion went on for less than 2 minutes and as they walked out the result sheets were given to us. We were not sure if the result handed over to us was right or did they make an error. After reconfirming with the airline representative we read out the results. Our priced horses had not won the race. In an interview which had seven rounds our star performers were shown the door even before the race started. The results we saw the whole day were bang opposite to what we had assumed. It didn’t matter much to us then but 10 years later – Déjà vu.

Towards the end of 2011 I was back in my college in the exact same seminar hall where the interview had been conducted. I was representing the same airline for which I had conducted registrations as a placement volunteer. I had joined the airline and moved up the corporate ladder and now recruiting from my own college. Now being on the other side of the table I realized how a company recruits and why two very good looking guys who seemed very apt for an air crew did not make it even past the first round.

When the footfall is close to 1000 candidates the recruiter does a quick profiling of the candidate based on the way he walks in and sits down. Through the day I never realized that sub consciously my brain was taking the decision even before I translated them to my conscious self. The decision is made in the first 10 seconds itself. Although my seniors were dressed well they were more appropriately dressed for a ballroom dance or a sophisticated party. Even though the suits looked nice they were ill fitting and loud.

I remember an advertisement which said “wear your attitude” in a huge hoarding. The truth is we all wear our attitude. A confident person is always seen impeccably dressed and usually in suits or extremely well ironed apparel. Somebody who is down in the dumps ends up wearing non ironed and faded apparel. Even the color combinations end up being wrong and weird.

In the same way that our attitude reflects what we wear the reverse effect of wearing something nice also exists. As a personal experiment wear something that makes you feel good to the local super market Make sure you go to the same super market which you regularly visit and see the difference in the way you speak and communicate with everyone else. You will even notice the supermarket staff treat you differently. If this can happen in a super market imagine the magic it can deliver in a business meeting or an interview.

If you look at your past experiences you will realize that a majority of your mentors and people you yourself look up to were all extremely well dressed individuals. Steve Jobs wearing only black is a style statement and a style that reflects his persona of standing out in a crowd.

A well dressed and an aptly dressed individual will be more confident and will reflect that in an interview better than a poorly dressed candidate. The sub conscious mind of the interviewer will decide if you are through or not, even before you have wished them. Make the right choices don’t just wear your attitude “Wear a Positive Attitude” even if you are down in the dumps