Dress to InVest: Batteries Included
There seems to be a recurring phrase said to me while I work or during interviews that always catches me off-guard, “Oh, you don’t have to get dressed up for us!”. I’m not sure what other people are wearing to jobs or interviews, but I don’t believe wearing a 3-piece suit is that far-fetched. During the interview process, surely people are wearing suits and ties when waiting to meet with hiring managers from perspective jobs. Even Beetlejuice wore a bowtie and suit while on the job.
In college, they told us to… “Dress for the job you want!”. Over my career, I've secured several dream jobs that I wanted, and not all of them mandated that I needed to dress the way I do now. So my dress code became more of a conscious choice versus verification that I either met my dream position or that I still felt the need to chase a position that matched a certain style of dress. Why would I continue to believe this phrase, when I can land dream positions that consistently re-assured me that I didn’t need to dress a certain way.
Work-life balance is important to me. I expect to have X amount of hours dedicated to work that doesn’t interfere with my non-work-life schedule on a daily basis. This hasn’t always meant that my work-life was from 9 to 5 (even if those were the official hours). It means when I planned and expected not to be working, then work items shouldn’t force themselves to be my priority. Honestly, this is a rabbit hole that can be a whole other article. I only bring it up to make this one point, that there are plenty of times my work-life balance caters to the same dress code.
The last workplace I expected to hear this was at a bank. I mean, it’s corporate America, right? 90% of the people who work there are probably wearing suits and ties. It shouldn’t be too odd to see me in one. Working as a developer at that time, could it really be impossible for people to imagine a world where a developer wears a suit to work? Would it be too much to ask them to imagine a world where outside of work I might be doing a ton of activities that warrants me to wear a suit?
It doesn’t make a lot of sense to change clothes after work just to dress appropriately for whatever I have planned for the remainder of the night. Maybe there is an after-work event, a board meeting, a professional social event, a business meeting with an investor or on the lighter side a wonderful “date night” scheduled. However you look at it, I’m presenting the best me and my dress code is a reflection of that.
In conclusion, to all future co-workers and anyone reading this post please remember that the batteries are included. Don’t penalize me for suiting up. Especially if it’s fair game for any dress code I must adhere for the team. I’m a lot more focused and productive when my best day is my vest day. If I’m on your team, you will be getting all of this fashionable glory. I’m here to dress to InVest whenever I’m living my vest life….ok ok ok I’m done. I hope this article was informative. In the future, I hope to direct people to this page instead of having to sound like a broken record when people ‘s become curious about my fashion sense