How You Look And Feel
Ok, so you're all set with an interview to a new potential job and they take one look at you and wonder if you should have even showed up. Ouch.
What are some of the motivating factors that most people make their decisions on in the working world. Aside from the fact that hormones can lead us to make decisions we otherwise would not have made, appearance is a second best option.
I am not just talking about your clothing choices or hair choices but the total you package. What are you saying about you when you present you to them?
What are some of the motivating factors that most people make their decisions on in the working world. Aside from the fact that hormones can lead us to make decisions we otherwise would not have made, appearance is a second best option.
I am not just talking about your clothing choices or hair choices but the total you package. What are you saying about you when you present you to them?
Clothing Choices
Ok, so you want people to know you're serious. But is a suit always the right choice? For an interview, the answer is always a yes. Even if its a warehouse job. Asking the interviewer what the dress code is shows you care about protocol and they will readily tell you jeans and a shirt if that's the attire.
For a school aged-job, usually expect to wear a pair of slacks and an oxford style shirt (three buttons above the bust/chest line, collar). For a beginner working world job, unless you have a gob of education and certifications behind your name, you will wear slacks and a button up shirt (buttons from neck to waistline, stiff collar). Sometimes (for men) its paired with a tie and women can optionally choose a skirt. For a professional environment, often seen by clients who drop by to inspect operations, a business suit is expected, every day. These suits should be tailored to fit your body and almost every dry cleaner these days has an alterations business on the side.
For a school aged-job, usually expect to wear a pair of slacks and an oxford style shirt (three buttons above the bust/chest line, collar). For a beginner working world job, unless you have a gob of education and certifications behind your name, you will wear slacks and a button up shirt (buttons from neck to waistline, stiff collar). Sometimes (for men) its paired with a tie and women can optionally choose a skirt. For a professional environment, often seen by clients who drop by to inspect operations, a business suit is expected, every day. These suits should be tailored to fit your body and almost every dry cleaner these days has an alterations business on the side.
Hair Choices
Projecting the image that you are a professional is what its all about. The best thing about that is that it doesn't have to be true. Or it can become true, given time. But if you wish for people to trust you and find you approachable, think before you break out the combs. Try for conventional, even if it hurts. We all want to look and feel different. We all want to stand out for what is "us." But it doesn't always make good business sense.
Take it from me, a curly headed mop-head. I allow myself Monday and Friday for "down" hair days but Tues-Thurs I take a straight iron to it.
Take it from me, a curly headed mop-head. I allow myself Monday and Friday for "down" hair days but Tues-Thurs I take a straight iron to it.
Body Choices/Food Choices
So we all hear the same thing: Diets dont work. But why?
Because, silly, its short term thinking. If I eat right now, then I can be bad tomorrow. Nope. Doesnt work.
What does work? Lifestyle changes. But how do you make that leap? First you have to "cleanse" your system by "eating right". Not everyone agrees on what that is, but having tried a few diets out there, so, what have I learned?
Six-week body makeover: Take away? To be successful (the first time) I had to eliminate all sugar, salt, oil, butter, fat, and dairy. What was left? Veggies (1 Cup per meal) and Protein (2-4 oz) 5x a day with Complex Carbs (1/2 cup) 2x out of that 5.
Eat more often, smaller portions, the right foods. And exercise 5x a week in a slow but steady way for at least 1/2 an hour. Enough to make your heart go pitty-pat. (Try singing while walking and when you can no longer sing steadily without breathing heavy, that is the ideal heart rate). And no hills. You want an even keel. If you beat yourself up silly, how likely are you to do it 5x a week?! You have to want it. And, with the power of positive thought, you are to envision those parts of you you want to change and how you want them to look. (The 1st time I lost 28 lbs, the 2nd time I lost another 26 lbs, etc).
Now a friend at work has told me about the 17-day Diet. I object to the word Diet, again, because its short term thinking. But its not really just 17 days they want you to commit to. That's just the gimme. Most of the before and afters from the site are of people who aren't miraculously changed to a skinny person but there is a perceptible change in their bodies because, again, they ate proteins and veggies (and for this one he advocates a probiotic {usually yogurt no fat plain} 2x a day). After 17 days you get to add back in the carbs slowly and there are 17 more days of a slow grow then after that you have a moderated (read looser) eating. My friend lost 20 lbs.
The goal for any of these ultimately is to get you to change from sitting around playing (non-productive) games on your devices and chomping mindlessly on your pretzel, mountain dew and reeces diet (yes, see, I used the word diet again, but here its ironic) to moving, preferably out of doors, and eating at specified times in the day (usually every 2-2.5 hours).
So what's changed? Not only are you having to (gasp) cook for yourself (often ahead of time so you can have food for tomorrow at work as well) but you are also making conscious choices about what to put in your body.
Science has shown that thinking before you put it in your mouth and writing it down has a positive effect. Each time I tried to compete for the weight loss, I wrote down the loss on a weekly basis (weight div original/starting weight = % lost). However, reading the September 2011 Reader's Digest, there is a mocking word they have for people who blog about it and take pictures of it, tweet about it, etc. "Foodiot". Sigh. Not helping. (Of course I know a few Foodiots).
Either which way, people, right or wrong, will judge you based upon how you look, assuming you can even get that far into the interview process. So, plan ahead. A little bit of effort on your part may just save your life in addition to getting the job. And most of us NEED that job.
Because, silly, its short term thinking. If I eat right now, then I can be bad tomorrow. Nope. Doesnt work.
What does work? Lifestyle changes. But how do you make that leap? First you have to "cleanse" your system by "eating right". Not everyone agrees on what that is, but having tried a few diets out there, so, what have I learned?
Six-week body makeover: Take away? To be successful (the first time) I had to eliminate all sugar, salt, oil, butter, fat, and dairy. What was left? Veggies (1 Cup per meal) and Protein (2-4 oz) 5x a day with Complex Carbs (1/2 cup) 2x out of that 5.
Eat more often, smaller portions, the right foods. And exercise 5x a week in a slow but steady way for at least 1/2 an hour. Enough to make your heart go pitty-pat. (Try singing while walking and when you can no longer sing steadily without breathing heavy, that is the ideal heart rate). And no hills. You want an even keel. If you beat yourself up silly, how likely are you to do it 5x a week?! You have to want it. And, with the power of positive thought, you are to envision those parts of you you want to change and how you want them to look. (The 1st time I lost 28 lbs, the 2nd time I lost another 26 lbs, etc).
Now a friend at work has told me about the 17-day Diet. I object to the word Diet, again, because its short term thinking. But its not really just 17 days they want you to commit to. That's just the gimme. Most of the before and afters from the site are of people who aren't miraculously changed to a skinny person but there is a perceptible change in their bodies because, again, they ate proteins and veggies (and for this one he advocates a probiotic {usually yogurt no fat plain} 2x a day). After 17 days you get to add back in the carbs slowly and there are 17 more days of a slow grow then after that you have a moderated (read looser) eating. My friend lost 20 lbs.
The goal for any of these ultimately is to get you to change from sitting around playing (non-productive) games on your devices and chomping mindlessly on your pretzel, mountain dew and reeces diet (yes, see, I used the word diet again, but here its ironic) to moving, preferably out of doors, and eating at specified times in the day (usually every 2-2.5 hours).
So what's changed? Not only are you having to (gasp) cook for yourself (often ahead of time so you can have food for tomorrow at work as well) but you are also making conscious choices about what to put in your body.
Science has shown that thinking before you put it in your mouth and writing it down has a positive effect. Each time I tried to compete for the weight loss, I wrote down the loss on a weekly basis (weight div original/starting weight = % lost). However, reading the September 2011 Reader's Digest, there is a mocking word they have for people who blog about it and take pictures of it, tweet about it, etc. "Foodiot". Sigh. Not helping. (Of course I know a few Foodiots).
Either which way, people, right or wrong, will judge you based upon how you look, assuming you can even get that far into the interview process. So, plan ahead. A little bit of effort on your part may just save your life in addition to getting the job. And most of us NEED that job.