Clothes Can Still Make or Break Your Career

Dress for success. Clothes make the man or the woman. Didn't all that die in the 1950s or 1960s? Isn't that old passe? I mean, aren't we about being expressive, being individual now? Well, yes and no. The days are gone when men had to wear a gray flannel suit and women had to wear a boxy blue male looking suit and a big bow. It's not about everyone looking the same, it's not about having a set uniform. But it is important that you have a sense of how you dress, how you come across, your hygiene, how you style yourself so that it works for you in your industry. Every industry is a little different. When I go and conduct a live media training workshop or public speaking workshop with certain large banks or mutual funds, I'm often in a suit and tie because that's how my clients are dressed and that's how they're dressed when they're going on CNBC or making speeches at major financial conferences. But when I'm in Silicon Valley and I'm working with high tech companies, companies and startup companies, I have to make sure I leave the tie at home, I leave the suit jacket at home. I've got to dress more casually. To show up with a suit and tie at a high tech Silicon Valley company would be an instant mark of someone unsophisticated, frankly unprofessional. Now styles change. Certainly when I was younger, 20 years ago, even 15 years ago, beards on men sent an unprofessional message. These days it almost seems weird, almost unprofessional, not to have a beard. Just so happens I don't look good in a beard at all. So I'm not suggesting everyone has to be clean cut and traditional. You do need to know what the expectations are in your field and in your industry. If you're trying to get a job at Goldman Sachs, having a tattoo on your face is probably not going to help your job prospects and your interviewing prospects. On the other hand, if you're trying to get on Ink or some other TV show about tattoo artists and you have a tattoo parlor, it's probably going to hurt you if you always wear a conservative tailored suit and a tie and a white shirt, it's probably going to really look weird to be dressed like that. So every industry has its norms. You need to dress in a way that expresses you and your individuality. I don't want to sound like I'm trying to make you boring and bland, but also is consistent with what you're about and doesn't confuse people. If you tell people that you are a heart surgeon and you're going on tv, you're wearing your bathing suit and a tank top, it's just going to confuse people. If you've just won international surfing championship and you are wearing a suit and tie, well, that's going to confuse people. So you need to have something that doesn't confuse people. I mean, why I'm wearing this now is I have a lot of different clients and customers and trainees all over the world in all sorts of different industries. I don't want to wear a suit and tie and seem irrelevant and too stodgy for casual industries and younger industries. So I have something that's just somewhat innocuous, doesn't scream out, doesn't call too much attention, isn't too casual, it's not a short sleeve shirt showing a lot of skin. This way I can get people just to focus on what I'm saying. That's why I'm dressed this way. You need to have rationale as to why you're dressed in a certain way and why is your hair styled in a certain way. Now, it may seem odd to you getting hair styling advice from someone like me. Again, there's no one perfect hairstyle, but if you're wearing something that just strikes everyone in your industry as odd or weird, it could be a problem. Other issues of just personal hygiene. This is the part that's too awkward for your co workers to mention, so I'm going to mention it. Does your breath stink? Here's the thing. You probably don't know. If you don't go to a dentist every four to six months and brush your teeth every day and get, you know, really good regular dental care, your breath could be horrible and no one's going to tell you, but they're not going to want to be around you. Does your body have any odor? Again, there are different cultural norms on this. But if you are in an industry and you want to be a part of the global economy, you're going to meet some people who have very high standards of what's considered acceptable body smell. You need to know that and you need to plan for it accordingly. My advice is you've got to find somebody who will really tell you straight to your face. And sometimes this is a family member, even a spouse. And you need to ask them to look you up and down. Is there anything about you that looks odd, that looks weird, that looks unflattering, that smells bad? And you need to address this because it's a big world. People have a lot of choices of who they want to do business with, and in general, they don't want to deal with someone who makes them uncomfortable, certainly who's unpleasant. As far as smell, body odor, breath smell, you've got to take care. It may seem obvious, but for those who have the problem, it's obviously not obvious to them. No little detail is too great to overlook. So pay attention to these issues of dress and hygiene. So that's your homework assignment. Find a close family member or friend who's not afraid to hurt your feelings, to really look at you, to get close enough to smell your breath, to smell your body, and to give you honest feedback.