Dress

[asterroc]

In an attempt to find evidence other than anecdotal that women tend to talk themselves down and understate their abilities and that mean talk themselves up and overstate their abilities, I instead came across this set of advice on how women should dress for an interview. Am I the only one who finds it insulting that a State University webpage would perpetuate sexist requirements such as "Always wear hose to interviews"?

Comments

[best-ken-ever.livejournal.com]

Purely pragmatically: I suspect that they are suggesting that if there is a point to wearing hose, it should be worn. If the interviewer will not notice (that is, if you will be having your legs entirely covered by a pantsuit/dresspants/similar), then the hose is, of course, not necessary.

Hillary Clinton wore a suit last night (so, she very likely didn't wear hose), and it was kind of an interview. I thought it was tasteful, but then again clothing doesn't seem to play as important of a role to me when I am thinking about people consciously or subconsciously.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

The thought of wearing a skirt in a business environment baffles me. If any of the female faculty or staff on campus do so, I can't think of one off the top of my head.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

One of the adjuncts wears a skirt and heels to teach her microbiology lab. I think it's unprofessional, not to mention unsafe.

[best-ken-ever.livejournal.com]

In a science lab, I definitely think that safety far outweighs otherwise-"professional" dress.

For me, I happen to work in a business-casual environment, and so it's not uncommon for women to wear pantsuits and it's not uncommon for women to wear nicer (longish) skirts. Actually, when I came in wearing a suit and tie for the interview for this job, I was asked by several of my interviewers if HR had told me what to wear (they had not) and told me that HR should've said business casual. Ah well.