How One Affects The Other

Your image is important,

both when you are applying for a job

and when you deal with customers. 

Imagine that you want to hire a delivery boy for groceries, and an applicant comes in, dressed in an elegant $1.000 suit, a white shirt and a beautiful silken tie. Would you believe, that he would be a loyal and stable employee, satisfied with the salary you offer?

Or you are seeking a salesperson to visit hospitals to sell highly specialized

medical equipment and an applicant show up with long filthy hair, pierced eyebrows and tongue, T-shirt and worn out jeans. Would you even bother to talk to him/her, or would you just say, that you have already hired one for the job.

We are all judged by our appearance, so whatever you are applying for a job or you are at work, always dress for the occasion. In your leisure time you can dress as you like, but at work you have to fit the traditional look of the occupation if you want to be noticed for what you do instead of what you wear.

One part of your image is common for all jobs. Never show up dirty at your work, even if you have dirty work. Make sure that you don’t smell unpleasant and that you don’t have a bad breath. These are things that people rarely will tell you, but it will influence their opinion about you.

Quite funny the way we dress also influences the way we think and work, though few people are aware of it.

In the spring of 2000, a lot of companies started going to casual Fridays and some went casual for the summer. What happened? When people are dressed casual in a business environment, their attitude was more casual, and their work was not getting done like before. Over the next several years, many of these companies stopped with casual day because they saw that the employees got a “casual” attitude.

That’s an important reason for that Catholic and boarding schools have the students ware uniforms. It helps reminding them that they are going to school (work), so that their focus is on the schoolwork and not on who is wearing what.

Yet it never hurts to dress a small step above what you would ware on the job, when you are going to a job interview. You’ll gain more positive points being a bit overdressed than just casual dressed, or the way you would be dressed when hanging out with your friends.

But the most important thing for you image is your PMA. If two applicants for a job or a promotion are equal in qualifications, the one with the most positive attitude will always be chosen.