I recently hosted a Scripps prospie who will be interning for the same organization as me this summer, and what she told me came as a bit of a shock. Not only, she said, is the environment that I’m going to be working in one of the most professional she’s ever been exposed to, but all workers must adhere to a strict dress code. In this case, that means no halter-tops, nothing above the knees, and no leggings. While I had opposed dress codes before in my own public school, they make sense to have as an employee of a school, a position in which I would be expected to dress in a professional way that commanded respect even amongst seven year olds. Still, the fact that I’ll be working in an environment that lacks air conditioning, in summer in New York, poses the dual problem of dealing with the heat in one of the most fashionable cities in the world.

When I interviewed for the job in the dead of winter, I had to shadow a teacher for a brief period of time. I was immediately intimidated by the hip and chic attire the teacher, a young woman, was wearing- I remember she had these really cute black leather boots, and while she wasn’t wearing one of those really big floppy hats, she seemed like the type of person who could pull one off. I, on the other hand, was wearing a dinky old cardigan with a patterned top that my mom had bought me underneath. I call this shirt my interview shirt. I have worn it to every interview because it’s kind of cute and not too revealing, but at the same time, it doesn’t exactly exude power, or the idea that I could be the type of girl to pull off a big floppy hat like that teacher. Looking back on the interview, it was like that episode of Broad City, where Ilana accidentally (or purposefully?) wears a dog hoodie to a meeting with an important buyer at her job. The buyer, played by Vanessa Williams, looks absolutely flawless, and Ilana is immediately impressed and embarrassed.

This summer, I want to do things differently. The biggest challenge for me is dressing in a way that conveys this sense of power and confidence while working with the New York City heat. What I buy will be very dependent on whether or not jeans are allowed at the job- currently, I have several dark-wash, no rip pairs that in my eye seem appropriate for a teaching job, but then again, what do I know? While I’m too busy with work right now to really do some shopping, I can see myself burning a lot of cash at stores like Zara and H&M. Fashion has always been something that’s important to me in terms of expressing myself, and I’m excited to dress this newfound part of myself- the part that has a career that’s making a difference in the real world- in the best way possible.