July 21, 2009
How to Dress for an Interview
By Sheila Dicks
The dress code in most organizations is as different as the organization itself, so it is impossible to find an outfit that will work well in all interviews. What should you do? Do some investigating and find out how the employees dress and follow their lead but dress just slightly better.
Wear business-like attire, avoiding flashy colours, bold prints, logos and keep jewelry to a minimum. Wear clothes in which you feel comfortable and don’t wear skirts that will ride up when you sit. Carry a nice attaché case or folder to hold your resume and examples of your work.
Before you leave home check yourself in a full length mirror and have one last look for rips, runs in stockings (take an extra pair just in case you get a run along the way) and buttons that are about to fall off. A few extra points:
1. Wear a fashionable suit or dressy tailored separates. Make sure they fit well and don’t remove the jacket during the interview (don’t laugh, I saw this happen).
2. Prepare your clothes for the interview the night before and try it on. Don’t leave anything to chance.
3. If you are not wearing a jacket but choose to wear something more casual long sleeves are a must. Sleeveless garments should not be worn in a work environment and certainly not for an interview.
4. Never go without hosiery and don’t wear sandals.
5. It has been said that you can look at a person’s shoes and determine how wealthy they are – it seems shoes are the last investment. For an interview or business, wear shoes with a closed toe and closed heel and keep them polished without nicked heels or scruffy toes.
6. Pay attention to your hair. A stylish haircut is essential to a professional image.
7. Carry yourself with confidence; stand tall with your shoulders back. Portray a successful image by paying attention to details – tastefully applied makeup, the best garments you can afford and being prepared for the interview.
When you are prepared for the interview, which means knowing the job you have applied for, knowing your resume and how you fit that job, your self-confidence will become apparent. Taking care of how you look will give you one less thing to worry about so you can concentrate on selling your skills. Read more information and photos of Desi Girls.
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How to Attract a Man (Who Will Make You Happy for the Rest of Your Life!)
By Terry Hernon MacDonald
“It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.”–Somerset Maugham
An educated, successful, and attractive woman (we’ll call Jane) reports that she “really wants to get married.” When asked what she’s looking for in a husband, her response is a blank stare. She just wants a husband, she says. She’s already picked out her engagement ring.
Most of her friends are married or getting married, and she’s sick of her mother’s weekly calls announcing the weddings of her grammar school classmates. She’s tried speed dating and singles’ dances. She’s made plans for drinks, only to endure the humiliation of being stood up more than once. She’s had blind dates, which invariably end with her getting out of some man’s car and hoping he’ll call again. He usually doesn’t, and she wonders what is wrong with her. She never considers whether she even liked the guy.
She has made marriage her goal. She may achieve it one day, but she’d be so much better off if she made a happy marriage her goal. She must rub the vision of herself in a Vera Wang wedding dress out of her mind. First, she must determine the qualities she desires in a husband, and also exactly what she expects from marriage. Otherwise, she could end up with the wrong man. The consequences range from a life of misery to death at the hands of an abuser.
Another woman (we’ll call Pat) has been married for twenty years. Her husband buys himself presents for her birthday, like the soap dish and wine glasses he wanted but she didn’t. More insultingly, he gave her Dr. Laura’s new book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands.
He has a rotten temper. Once, he threw their toddler’s Barney furniture off the back deck and smashed it into pieces because it cluttered the kitchen.
Pat complains that her husband monitors her spending relentlessly. He pitched a fit when she spent $2.95 on a pencil sharpener. He decides when the heat and air conditioning can run and at what temperature. One brutally hot day, he screamed at her for having the audacity to turn on the ceiling fan without his permission.
Pat maintains that her children love their father, but they don’t like him. They steer clear of him whenever possible, especially since his method of punishment is to lock them in a room and make them listen to Dr. Laura.
She and her husband both have good jobs, but she is “much better educated” than he. So, how did she get stuck with this creep?
Pat met him when she was 23. He was 29 and from another part of the country, which made him seem worldly. She was so flattered to be with an older guy, so caught up in having fun, that she forgot to take account of his values.
“He used to talk about how his grandfathers ruled the roost,” she says. “All the women in their family were beholden to their husbands. He even used to tell me the things his grandfather would do to his grandmother.”
This man told her flat-out that his family diminished women, but she was having too good a time to let it sink in. Twenty years later, she’s depressed, frightened, and unhappy. She has no self-confidence. Even though she has a good job, she is terrified to go it alone without her husband. She’s a prisoner.
Unless Jane raises her standards, she may find herself in Pat’s situation one day. She must stop being desperate. She should make a list of the good qualities she has to offer and read it whenever she starts to feel bad about not being married. She should make a list of the qualities she desires in a husband (“kind” should trump “rich”). Reading this list several times a day will help her attract men with these qualities.
