Few Important Things to know

Interview Suit (Jacket and Pants)

• Wear a navy, navy pinstripe, charcoal gray, or charcoal gray pinstripe suit for a first job interview. Avoid black since it is more formal.
• Wear a jacket with 2 or 3 buttons. Stay away from jackets with more than 3 buttons since they are considered to be more trendy.
• Button the top button on a 2 button jacket and button the top either the middle button or the top 2 buttons on a 3 button jacket. Never button the bottom button on a jacket.
• Wear plain front or pleated slacks. Make sure to get them tailored properly, wearing dress shoes with an average height heel, not sneakers.
• Wear your pants at your natural waist which is right below your belly button. Do not wear them down low, or they will look sloppy. Pants should be able to stay up on your waist without a belt. Pant length matters. You don’t want pants to be too long or that will look unfinished and untailored.
• Pants can have a cuff or a plain bottom. Typically a cuff bottom is worn since it looks more finished.
Interview Shoes, Belt and Socks
• Match your shoes to your belt (leather to leather). For example, with a charcoal gray suit you should wear black shoes and a black belt. With a navy suit, you can wear black shoes/belt, or you can wear burgundy shoes/belt.
• Wear lace up shoes on interviews.
• Match your sock color to your pants color. For example, charcoal gray socks would be worn with a charcoal gray suit.

Interview Dress Shirt

• Wear long sleeve dress shirts, not short sleeves.
• Show a quarter inch of your dress shirt at the bottom of your jacket sleeve.
• Wear 1 of 3 collar choices—either a button down collar, a point collar, or a spread collar shirt.
• Wear a white or light blue shirt. These are the only two colors that are recommended for a first interview.
• Wear a barrel cuff shirt which is a shirt with one button at the bottom of the sleeve. Do not wear cuff links to an interview.

Interview Tie

• Wear a conservative tie with a small pattern that complements your suit. Avoid big patterns and bright colors.
• Striped ties are always appropriate with the best color choices being burgundy, red or gold. Avoid ties that are fashion forward in color like pink, fuschia and dark olive. It’s OK to pick up the color of the suit in the tie, but it does not have to match exactly.
• It’s fine to wear a striped tie with a pinstripe suit as long as they don’t clash.
• The bottom of your tie should hit right at your belt.
• Tie a medium size knot. Avoid big knots.