STYLE
What to Wear to a Job Interview
Interviewers form an impression in the first few seconds, well before you have said anything useful, and your outfit is doing a lot of that early talking. Here is how to get it right, whether you are walking into a bank, a start-up, or somewhere in between.
What Is Appropriate Attire for a Corporate Interview?
The safest rule for any corporate interview is to dress one notch above what the role actually requires day to day. If the office is suits and ties, wear a suit and tie. If the office is smart casual, wear a full suit anyway, because it is far easier to remove a tie in the lobby than to conjure one from thin air.
A well-fitted suit in navy or charcoal is the default for a reason. Both colours read as serious without tipping into funeral territory, and both pair easily with any shirt or tie combination you already own. Stick to a crisp white or light blue shirt, a conservative tie if the industry calls for one, and leather shoes in black or dark brown that have actually seen a polish cloth recently. Socks should match your trousers, not your shoes, and should be long enough that no skin appears when you sit down and cross your legs.
Understand the Business's Own Dress Code First
Before you decide on a single item, spend ten minutes actually researching the company. The single biggest mistake men make when picking a job interview outfit is dressing for the industry in general rather than the business in front of them, and the two do not always match.
Formal workplaces. Banks, law firms, consultancies, and most large corporates still run on a formal dress code, even if a few of their staff have quietly moved to smart casual day to day. Interviewers in these settings are often assessing whether you will fit seamlessly into a client-facing environment, so this is not the place to experiment. Bring a tie even if the firm's own website shows staff dressed more casually. Interview day still calls for the more formal version of the uniform, and you can always loosen it once you have the job.
Casual workplaces. Tech companies, agencies, and many start-ups run genuinely casual, and turning up in a full suit and tie can occasionally read as tone-deaf. That said, casual does not mean careless. Check the company's website, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor photos for a sense of how staff actually dress, and lean slightly more polished than what you see, not less.
If you are genuinely unsure which category an interview falls into, err formal. A blazer over a shirt and chinos looks intentional in a jeans-and-hoodie office, whereas turning up underdressed to a client-facing finance role is much harder to recover from in the room.
What Colours Should You Wear to a Job Interview?
Colour is where a lot of good outfits quietly fall apart. Get it right and nobody notices. Get it wrong and it is the only thing they remember.
Suit. Navy and charcoal are the two colours that work almost everywhere, from a finance job interview outfit to a general corporate role. Navy reads as slightly more approachable, charcoal slightly more serious, but both are safe defaults. Black is worth avoiding for interviews outside of very formal, older-school industries, since it tends to read as eveningwear or, worse, a funeral suit.
Shirt. White is the most reliable choice and pairs with any suit and tie combination. Light blue is a close second and slightly softer against most skin tones under office lighting. Save patterns, colour, and anything with texture for after you have the job.
Tie. Navy, burgundy, and deep green all work well against a navy or charcoal suit. Small, regular patterns such as fine stripes or a subtle dot are safer than anything bold or novelty.
Shoes and accessories. Black shoes for a black or charcoal suit, black or dark brown for navy. Keep the belt colour matched to the shoes, and keep jewellery minimal. A watch is fine.Dressing for an interview is about looking like you understand the room you are walking into and took the time to prepare for it. Work out whether the business runs formal or casual before you decide on anything else, stick to navy, charcoal, white, and blue rather than reaching for colour or pattern, and let fit do the rest of the work.