Can your outfit still be a 'guarantee of success' today?
There was a time when it was considered a simple matter of going to Ben Sanur to succeed in interviews and jobs etc., meaning you had to dress smart and the smarter you looked the better your chances of success.
In traditional offices, almost all the senior executives were seen wearing suits, and if you were going to interview for the same type of job, you had to imitate such executives in terms of dress.
But since the boom in the technology sector in the recent past, the situation has changed. In California's 'Silicon Valley', the biggest technology center in the world, you can now see people working at big companies in jeans, hoodies and black turtlenecks. .
Every company here has its own uniform of success, but one thing is clear, suits and ties have become a thing of the past and have been replaced by casual clothes. And now this trend is not limited to technology companies but the trend of everyday clothes is spreading rapidly in other sectors as well.
In the year 2020, the compulsion to work from home due to Covid has completely changed the old tradition.
During the pandemic, many employees could only see their colleagues' shoulders and faces during video calls, even when others had their cameras on. During these video meetings you only needed a collared shirt to impress others, you must have worn bathrobe slippers and knickers under the table. And if the camera isn't on, it doesn't matter if you're wearing your bedroom pajamas or you're sitting with a duvet.
But nowadays, with more and more companies asking their employees to come to the office a few days a week and talk of a 'hybrid model', some companies are expecting you to revert to office wear. In such a case, what would be the dress for success?
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Now, if you come back to the formal attire of suit and tie, it will not be taken to mean that you are really a very confident and powerful officer. But if you come wearing a spacious jacket or hoodie with a hat, even then it will not work.
What message do you want to convey with your clothes?
One thing that has always been true when it comes to clothing is the guarantee of success and that is what message you want to convey to the viewer through your clothes. It is said that if you want to set the benchmark for success in a particular company or office, observe how your officers dress and then try to add your own personal touch to it.
Sarah Archer, of CareerTree, a British career coaching company, says that what you wear 'sends a message to the viewer about where you see yourself and what your intentions are. . We may dress like them to fit in with our peers. And if you want to move up in the organization, you'll dress in a way that shows you're ready for a big position."
Most people think it's a good strategy to let people know what you and your officers have in common in terms of dress and grooming. We tend to think well of people who look like us. This thing is called 'affinity bias' or proximity bias. Research shows that officers are more likely to select individuals who look and present themselves as officers.
If you adopt the mannerisms of people who are more senior than you, it can help you to show that you are one of the officers. Research shows that if an employee dresses more aggressively like their bosses, they feel more confident and their performance actually improves. Sara says that this thing has also come in her observation.
'Many people find that when they think positively about their clothes and present themselves in a certain way, they feel more confident and this has a positive effect on their work and performance. .'
Another aspect of dressing for success nowadays is whether you understand and follow the rules of your office. In the past when everyone wore a certain dress code to the workplace, these rules were easy to understand. But nowadays, especially in companies where casual clothes have become more of a trend, it has become a bit difficult to understand how you should dress.
According to Joey Price of Jumpstart, an American company, 'it shows how carefully you look at things. It shows how you maintain your personal identity.'
Joey Price added that your dress and grooming sends a clear message to your officers.
If you dress appropriately for your office, it shows that you understand the office environment
But if you can't balance your identity with the mood of the office and you arrive at the office too dressed up, it can also send the wrong message. For example, 79% of offices in the United States now have casual clothes, so if you show up to the office wearing a suit, your reputation might be bad rather than good.
"It will look like you've come to the wrong place," says Archer. Dressing excessively will show that you don't understand the office culture, mood, your observation is not correct and you are not able to get along with other people in the office.
Your gender and race also play a role in what is considered good or bad dress in an office. For example, even a slight change in skirt length can affect how competent a female manager is perceived to be. Likewise, it may be difficult for employees of minority ethnicities to decide what they should wear to be truly representative of their race, i.e., to decide whether they should wear their professional attire. And how to balance cultural attire. "We can alienate a lot of people by wearing what they think is more authentic," says Price. This thing is very unfair.
Rules are important even in the online age
We might think that working from home has changed the office dress code because many employees may think that no one knows much about what you're wearing in a video link meeting.
Zoom also has a 'dress code' and you can impress other people
But Archer disagrees.
"If you're not paying attention to what people can see on screen, you're missing out on the chance that people will remember you," she says. If you want to progress in the company, it is important that you come into the eyes of people.
Employees who want to advance to the next level have fewer opportunities these days to meet and impress their peers and superiors. So you have to find a way to make yourself stand out and be remembered by other people, even if you appear in a small box on the screen.''
One way to do this is to wear flashy clothes or jewelry, but people may say that you're overdressing. For example, when everyone in a meeting is wearing hoodies and one person appears on the screen wearing a nice collared shirt, people may not think it's cool.
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Is the time of the tie suit gone?
This means that online employees may have the same problem as in the office, namely how to balance an outfit. Would it be good to look like your officers and stand out from your fellow employees? It all depends on what your office environment is like and what people wear at other companies in the same industry as you.
All these difficulties have their place, but one thing is clear, and that is, even if you wear the best clothes for your office, you should still be useful for promotion, that is, what skills do you have that others can't find? Makes it better. Even if an employee catches the eye of his manager by his dress and grooming, it doesn't matter much.
The manager will say that you understand the office environment very well, but you still have to prove whether or not you can do the job you are applying for.
However, it would not be wrong to say that your clothing can help you in your development, and the most important thing is how you are observed.
"It's a good idea to dress appropriately for the job or position you want to work in," Price says. Whether you want to impress your superiors or your fellow employees, in both cases your attire plays an important role.
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