{"id":82538,"date":"2014-10-10T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=82538"},"modified":"2014-10-09T17:33:45","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T22:33:45","slug":"make-sure-you-look-the-part","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=82538","title":{"rendered":"Make Sure You Look the Part"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Diana La Femina, Senior Editor, INALJ Newfoundland and Labrador<\/a>, Northwest Territories<\/a>, New Brunswick<\/a>, Manitoba<\/a>, British Columbia<\/a>, Alberta<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Make Sure You Look the Part<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>Appearance matters, whether you want it to or not. But it’s not so much how you look as it is\u00a0how you present<\/em> yourself.<\/p>\n

Anyone who knows me personally can tell you how laid-back I am with my appearance, to the\u00a0point of being frumpy. I may very well have started the trend of wearing pajamas to class in high\u00a0school (I’m sorry for that, by the way), I wash my hair but don’t style it, and it took me a long\u00a0time before I realized that most of my clothes were hand-me-downs from my two brothers (a\u00a0situation I have since rectified). What work-appropriate clothes I used to own were ill-fitting to\u00a0say the least.<\/p>\n

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t look nice, the problem was that I was sending a signal with\u00a0my appearance that I didn’t want to send. By not putting in any effort I was telling people that\u00a0I didn’t care, that the job or interview I was dressing for wasn\u2019t important to me. It’s the idea\u00a0behind the saying, “dress for the job you want, not the job you have”. (Although if I really\u00a0followed that tenant literally I’d be dressing as a ninja princess everyday, and where would that\u00a0get me?) Your appearance signals your intentions.<\/p>\n

I want you to really look at how you present yourself at work, interviews, and networking events.\u00a0You don’t have to buy new or expensive clothes, but do you look like you’ve put an effort into\u00a0looking polished? Most importantly, do you look how you want others to think of your personal\u00a0brand?<\/p>\n

The opposite can work against you as well. I have a good friend who looks perfect every day.\u00a0It’s annoying as anything to stand next to her. The hair, the outfit, the nails, the makeup; I just\u00a0can’t compete. Problem is, she looks so perfect it’s actually intimidating. It makes her look\u00a0controlling (which is actually very good for her position, but it’s not be for everyone) and\u00a0vaguely unapproachable. At networking events, interviews, and almost always librarianship\u00a0positions this is not the message you want to convey.<\/p>\n

My point is, don’t aim for perfection, just aim for putting in enough effort to show you care about\u00a0your personal brand. Prioritize and always stay true to yourself. Like color? Go for it. Wear\u00a0nothing but black? Equally awesome. Be yourself but make sure to show you care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Diana La Femina, Senior Editor, INALJ Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta Make Sure You Look the Part Appearance matters, whether you want it to or not. But it’s not so much how you look as it is\u00a0how you present yourself. Anyone who knows me personally can tell you…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":74114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[4521,69,3592,6593,3996,3666,3992,6486,5888,4391,6358,3667,5217],"class_list":["post-82538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-appearance","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-clothing","tag-diana-la-femina","tag-inalj-alberta","tag-inalj-british-columbia","tag-inalj-labrador","tag-inalj-manitoba","tag-inalj-new-brunswick","tag-inalj-newfoundland","tag-inalj-northwest-territories","tag-interview-clothes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/diana-la-femina.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-ltg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}