Tag Archives: clothing

LinkedIn

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At the end of this summer and my fabulous internship, it was time to get serious about how to update my LinkedIn profile. When I started thinking about LinkedIn, I sat there trying to figure out what exactly LinkedIn is. To start with, I realized that LinkedIn is not necessarily as fun as say, Facebook.  Instead I would personally describe LinkedIn as Facebooks really braggy cousin. Now, there are a lot of websites that out there that tell you various different things about how to “do” LinkedIn properly. Most of us have figured out on Facebook, twitter and Tumbler but LinkedIn is something a bit different and way more scary…

According to LinkedIn, profiles with pictures are more likely to be viewed, with this in mind I decided to start here and to try and take a photo. The first thing, of course, is to look respectable, like a professional. This picture is going to be the first impression anyone looking at your profile is going to have. Not to freak anyone out, but it has become an important social networking tool. When I first decided it was time to finally take a picture for LinkedIn,  had just happened to wear a white and blue jacket with a red shirt. With these clothes on, all l needed was an eagle on my shoulder and I would be ready for a perfectly, patriotic picture for LinkedIn. I decided to change out of my accidently patriotic gear, and stood outside my closet for a long time thinking:

This is an important choice,something interesting, but professional, businesslike but also age appropriate. After finally figuring out what to wear, I had to find a neutral wall. Which was apparently more awkward that I thought it would be. My house does not really have neutral walls, my choices were dark burgundy, an awkward yellow color, or the one white wall against my bed. This had me sitting awkwardly on my bed while my mother took a picture.

Though my LinkedIn picture itself looks good, in reality I look something like this:

 

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I am aware of how well the jacket goes with sock-monkey Pj’s, they really bring out the blue tones in each other. The most important thing that I am business on the top half, though perhaps one should not admit that they were wearing Pj’s in reality.

My Exhausted Professional Wardrobe

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August is nearly upon us. I cannot believe over two months have gone by since summer began. However, it doesn’t take long to recall just how long I’ve been at my internship when I face the small selection of overused professional attire in my closet every morning.

I have had more and more trouble finding new getups fit for the office as the summer has progressed. I have managed to get by so far with a few staples and oft-worn pieces, but creativity, I’ve found, is one quality I cannot afford to live without. The cost of business casual clothing is simply too expensive to have clothes you can’t wear over and over again in different ways. So, when you hit the point where you have exhausted your wardrobe (as I have), what do you do? Below are a few ideas to perhaps save you some anxiety (and $$) over your mid-summer, overused working wardrobe.

Problem: I do not have enough outfit combinations. I end up wearing the same things over and over again. Won’t my coworkers judge me?

Solution: Honestly, people who have their own work to do will hardly notice if you wear the same pants two times a week. I cannot remember a single ensemble anyone in the office I work in has ever worn. As long as you don’t scandalize your coworkers by showing up in an inappropriate outfit, you will probably be fine. That being said, having options is nice—I invested in slacks (black and khaki), a black pencil skirt, and a few basic dresses. Pairing these basic staples with various articles of clothing I owned pre-internship, like blouses and sweaters, might give the impression that my working wardrobe is more expansive than it actually is.

Problem: I need to buy new shoes. I get by with sandals and athletic shoes at Scripps and grew out of my flats long ago! What do I buy?

Solution: Maybe this is more a personal problem than a universal issue, but I have had the hardest time finding suitable footwear for my internship. In another life I wore ballet flats pretty regularly, but those shoes no longer fit. Since I must walk from the train to my office nearly 3/4 mile away, I cannot get by without wearing comfy shoes. I bought a pair of comfortable black flats this summer and wear them multiple times a week. On the days when I do not wear my new shoes, I just wear flip-flops and pack older flats for the office to mitigate the painful effects of the prolonged wearing of ill-fitting shoes. Resourcefulness is key!

Problem: It’s so hot today, I need to wear as little clothing as possible. What’s the least I can get away with?

Solution: Knee-length minimum skirts. No shorts or t-shirts. Nothing too tight, low-cut, or sheer. Never sandals. Maintaining professionalism is possible in the heat. If you’re even questioning whether something is too skimpy or not, you should probably opt for something else. These examples of work-suitable tank tops provide a nice guide, but bring a sweater just in case. Hopefully your workplace is air-conditioned!

Problem: How can I incorporate clothes that aren’t really business casual into my work attire?

Solution: Certain tops, particularly blouses, can easily make the transition from school-appropriate to office-appropriate when matched with slacks rather than jeans. Sweaters, like cardigans and light pullovers, can also be paired with everything from skirts to dresses of appropriate-length. Tucking shirts into skirts/slacks oftentimes dresses up ensembles marvelously! Subtle jewelry like necklaces and earrings have a nice way of sprucing up an outfit a bit as well. Try different combinations and see what works!

Be economical, and good luck dressing in the next month! For more information about what professional attire means for interns, check out this article I read this weekend.

Photoshoot and Interview Featuring Bryn!

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This week’s blog post guest starts the one and only Bryn Morgan! We had a hilarious photoshoot in the Browning Living Room and interviewed each other on issues related to work attire and such. Keep your eyes peeled for a surprise visitor.

P: Describe your outfit choices and for what situations or occasions they would be worn.

B: All of the outfits you see in this post are ones I wear working as a Senior Interviewer interviewing prospective Scripps students for Admissions. The Scripps Admissions office is relatively relaxed and I would say most staff members wear business casual on a day-to-day basis.

Bryn’s basic business casual

This first outfit is basic and works well for my job in Admissions as well as interviews that don’t require more than business casual. I wore this outfit for a recent interview. While I love this pink top (it has a fun back!), a variety of other nice tops could be substituted to make a whole bunch of outfits. I’ll talk more about this later, but these black shoes and black trousers are comfortable and professional-looking staples that I wear all the time. For outfits like this one that are made up of blocks of color rather than patterns, I always like to have a necklace or some piece of jewelry like the gold one I’m wearing in this photo to keep things interesting.

Born Shoes, GAP trousers, shirt from Marshalls.

Outfit #2

I have to confess that while I do wear this blouse and skirt often, I have yet to wear these heels in Admissions. I think heels are fun but my feet do not, so when given the chance I usually forgo anything platform for flats. I like this outfit because it’s a little more  formal than the first while remaining colorful and fun (the quality of the picture isn’t high enough for you to make this out, but the pattern on my blouse is multicolor hearts). I don’t know what it is about pencil skirts, but I throw one on and automatically feel twice as professional!

Shirt and skirt from Forever 21, shoes from Urban Outfitters when I worked there and got a fantastic discount.

Bryn in a flowy and fantastic-for-warm-weather outfit and me!

This last outfit is one I have been wearing a lot recently as the temperature seems determined to remain excruciatingly high. It’s flowy and comfortable but still put together. I have a number of more flowy knee-length skirts like this one and they have seemed so much more appealing than pencil skirts or trousers in this weather! Also featured here is my blue and green wooden painted fish necklace that I found at a yard sale and love wearing to Admissions. It reminds me to lighten up every time I see it and has been a great conversation starter. I wore it to a recent interview as Lesley in CP&R had told me during my mock with CP&R that sometimes it’s okay to see individuals’ personalities come out.

Born shoes, skirt from Forever 21, shirt was a hand-me-down.

P: I’m a student and don’t have a lot of money to spend on professional attire. How do I stay cost effective and cute?

B: I talked a bit about how I was able to revamp my work appropriate wardrobe for working in Admissions on a budget in a blog post a few weeks ago and will elaborate here. Basically, I spent the most on two staples: my pair of black Born flats and black GAP trousers. I knew I would wear both items very frequently, and thought that  having comfortable, supportive, and well made shoes that I could wear all the time and will (hopefully) last for quite awhile was worth it. From there, Marshalls and Forever 21 were my saving graces. Inexpensive, cute, and work appropriate clothes abound in both stores, at least this season, and I was able to get a good number of blouses, sleeveless tops, and pencil and flowy skirts for a very reasonable price. Find fun jewelry at yard sales and Goodwill to add some pizzaz to your outfits.

P: Halloween is around the corner—what the scariest clothing mishap you’ve ever had?

SURPRISE

B: What comes to mind is just the other day in Admissions when I looked down after being there for about an hour and realized my blouse was on inside out. Luckily, the staff is extremely sweet and Meg, who fearlessly leads us from the front desk, and I laughed heartily together as I dashed into the bathroom to change. I’m sure now that you’ve asked me this question something truly scary will happen soon…I’ll report back.

P: Besides getting dressed, what’s the most intimidating part of an interview?

 

B: I really love interviews. I loved college interviews the first time around so much that I applied to interview prospective Scripps student four years later. What usually concerns me most is the possibility that I might not be able to get as much across to my interviewer(s) as I would like. For example, in a recent interview I had so much to say about a question they asked that I was disappointed  I was only able to communicate a fraction of it in the short 25 minutes the interview lasted. But I just do my best to let my personality and passion for whatever it is I’m talking about come out, and try not to worry!

In an ideal world, what would your work attire be?

Before I actually had to dress in professional attire 5 days a week in Beirut this summer, I thought I would hate feeling constrained to certain styles and items of clothing. It turns out I love dressing in professional attire and have especially been enjoying putting together outfits for Admissions this semester. In the future, having the flexibility of business causal would likely be preferable to wearing suits every day of the week, but I am delighted to find out that I don’t at all mind dressing up for work as it definitely leaves my options more open than if I were against being part of a workplace with a dress code.

Dear readers, we could do with some laughs and would love to hear your scary stories of clothing mishaps in interview or work settings! 

If Only I Could Wear That…

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The first time I visited Scripps was when I was flown out for Scholars Weekend February of my senior year of high school. Worrying about what to pack for both a warmer climate and a faculty interview, I consulted my friend who had been to Scholars Weekend the year before. “It’s California,” she assured me, “they’re a lot more casual than here.” Coming from the northeast, I had been raised believing that professional people had to dress pretty conservatively. I also just didn’t have a lot of experience having to dress professionally – college interviews were my first time really doing that, as I’m sure they were for many others. But coming to college in California has definitely raised my awareness of the fact that professional clothing can vary, not just from field to field, but also regionally.

When it comes to my personal choice in what to wear, I am the kind of person who will wear shorts or pants most of the time simply because I can’t be bothered with being composed enough to wear a skirt or dress in public. I’d rather wear something that is comfortable and functional than something that runs the risk of being blown up by an errant breeze (or subway grate à la Marilyn Monroe). There’s also something to be said for having a pocket to carry your phone and a belt loop for your keys. So when I start thinking about myself in a future workplace, the first thing that comes into my mind is the need for me to be comfortable. But what does comfortable work wear really mean? Would I love to be able to wear my everyday clothes (within reason) to my place of work? Heck yes. But I imagine I’m not the only person who wishes this, and the reality of the work world means that most of us cannot do that.

While there remains the possibility that I will some day be able to go to work in a clean-looking pair of jeans and my favorite Doctor Who tee, in the interim I have to be somewhat realistic. I don’t actually have a dislike of professional clothing, I’ve realized, but more of a discomfort with its associations. Work clothing is what adults wear, and I still don’t feel like an adult most of the time. There aren’t any particular items – heels, suits, etc. – that I truly dislike, as long as I can find something that I like the look and fit of. I am no longer quite so terrified at the thought of having to look nice five days out of the week, although to be sure most of my college-student-wardrobe would not really be suitable. Two and a half years later I actually have no memory of what I wore to my interview with Professor Boucquey, but it must have been all right, because I got in, and I got the scholarship. So when the day comes when I graduate from Scripps and begin my career adventures, I like to think that I will be able to adapt to whatever my profession requires of me – but will probably never give up hope of that jeans and t-shirt dream job.

Oh The Horror of Suit Shopping

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There I was, swallowed up in a sea of them: endless creepy copies of each other, all mocking me with their slick outlines and pricey price-tags. After one whole hour of shopping, I’d come to a conclusion: suits are awful. They‘re itchy, sit strangely on my waistline, and make it hard for me to bend my arms. The collar is annoying and my legs are swallowed up in polyester fabric. And my list of complaints continued to grow, until I reckoned I must be allergic to all forms of suits. My day of shopping had turned into a perpetual headache.

Suit # 8: Too pricey. Suit #14: Really? I thought shoulder pads went out in the 80’s. And of course there was Suit #1093828592: I don’t think lime green is professional.

Why was I buying a suit?

Good question.

I was possessed by an urgent need to own something professional looking, because I’ve been told that in the real world they like it when you wear pants, not leggings. Being the the ignormamus-towards-everything-suit-related that I was, I was eager to listen to everyone. And of course, I was getting nowhere. According to the very kind, helpful lady at Nordstorms who filled up my dressing room with suits that cost more than a summer internship stipend, pants mean business: they’re professional and strong. Skirts are flirty and unprofessional, you know? At Macy’s, the salesperson graciously informed me that the hefty shoulder pads attached to a discounted suit made me look like an airline stewardess. Good to know. And apparently, skirts were the way to go.

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