Is paying attention to how you dress worth it?

This is important if you are in a fashion related industry or one where fashion is important or if you live in Europe. Not so much for lots of companies here in the US. Most of the time (for guys anyway), just conforming to what most people are wearing is fine. No penalty for dressing a bit nicer/sharper. If you are a senior executive and are in the public eye, then it is important to be reasonably fashionable, but generally conservative. Again, with an exception for fashion, art, literary industries where you are expected to be fashionable.

I am a chemist following a technical track in a small town. Effective communication and being innovative is worth much more than your dress. That being said, not being able to distinguish whether you are a scientist or a technitian is a poor decision.

manoosie said:
Is it worth the time to learn and keep up with what is in fashion? If so, where do you get your style from?

Is it worth the extra money (although still making financial savvy purchases) to pay more attention to how you dress?

Yes to both.

christoj879 said: I dress nice during the week but Friday is always casual Friday. That means at the minimum a Hawaiian/tropical shirt and at the most that plus jeans and sandals. Shorts if in the summertime, but I usually weak khaki shorts by then with short sleeve dress shirts.

It's not a dress shirt if it has short sleeves.

Through graduate school, I used not to care about how I looked. This was complicated by the fact I was a fat-ass. Then I got my first real job and pretty much had to wear a tie and slacks every day. I also was told to get in better shape by my doctor or else suffer the consequences down the line. Let me tell you, dress shirts and pants look crappy on fat men (and what's worse is that most shirt-makers make the patterns *for* fat men, so that if you are in shape you look like you wear a bag). Motivated to look better and feel better, I slowly got into shape over 5 years. Now, things look crisp and clean on me and I feel great. With how proud I am of my accomplishments on my health and body, I care a lot more about how I dress and want to show it off. I care a lot about having clothes that fit and not looking like a slob. So, I have to get shirts altered if I buy them off-the-rack (or just get them made to measure). I get my pants and coats made for me bespoke. Yes, it's an expense, but I get great enjoyment out of it.

Everyone is absolutely right when they say skills and talent are what's important. You aren't going to survive based on how you dress.

But I get a lot of enjoyment out of expressing my enthusiasm for health and fitness by accentuating my hard work with my dress. People do notice, too, and that is a very nice reward =).

I'm an engineer. I have no concept of fashion. Thankfully, it doesn't matter.

Dressing sloppily compared to your coworkers gives a horrible first impression and will lead people to conclude you are lazy, unmotivated, careless, or something else negative. Even if you have been working at your job for a while a clean professional appearance could make a great first impression on someone higher up visiting your department. There are many studies that have shown good looking people get promoted more frequently than not so good looking people. If you watch some of these TV makeover shows you can see that with some minimal effort you can up your appearance 2 or 3 points (on the 10 point scale) by just getting a better haircut and a new wardrobe.
Somethings I have observed:
1)If you are overweight don't wear tight clothes.
2)Torn, seriously outdated, or worn out clothes and shoes are a terrible look for anyone.
3)Flashy clothes or revealing clothes make it look like you are not professional.
4)Just because your job is casual dress does not mean you should wear the same clothes you wear when you sit around and watch TV.

As a younger person I think you can gain a huge advantage by dressing nice. Young people are assumed to be inexperienced and not as knowledgeable. Dressing nice can give a good first impression that you are knowledgeable. Of course you must follow that up with something of substance (dressing nice with sloppy work will get you no where).
My wife worked at a private company and at a young age was promoted into a position where she interacted with parents of children being taught at a private learning center. By dressing more conservatively, as well as styling her hair and accessories similarly, she was able to win the respect of the parents and gave most of them the impression she was over 30 when she was really 24. After getting to know her these parents were shocked to learn her real age. Had they known her real age when they first met her they would have likely been skeptical of her capabilities.
As a graduate student I always dressed up at conferences and was frequently asked by other attendees at which university was I a faculty member. By giving the impression I was older and perhaps wiser I was able to initiate conversations with some of the big wigs that would have otherwise blown me off.

I think it is worth it in a few instances:

1. Definitely worth it if you are an attractive woman, or have aspirations to be an attractive woman,

2. Definitely worth it if you have upwardly mobile aspirations, and you are in a sales-oriented culture. In a tech, intellectual, meritocracy type cultures you might want to stick to casual and more "careless" (I mean, don't show up with grizzly hair and un-showered, but you know what I mean),

But you have to also back up your dressing. You have to be a better-than-average performer at the margin, and also if there is a clique in the management structure, you have to try to become part of that.

Otherwise, I don't see your expenditure on clothing paying off.

On the other hand, if you are good and you know it, there is no better signal that send a message that "You don't give a f-ing sh76".

biomedeng said: Dressing sloppily compared to your coworkers gives a horrible first impression and will lead people to conclude you are lazy, unmotivated, careless, or something else negative. Even if you have been working at your job for a while a clean professional appearance could make a great first impression on someone higher up visiting your department. There are many studies that have shown good looking people get promoted more frequently than not so good looking people. If you watch some of these TV makeover shows you can see that with some minimal effort you can up your appearance 2 or 3 points (on the 10 point scale) by just getting a better haircut and a new wardrobe.
Somethings I have observed:
1)If you are overweight don't wear tight clothes.
2)Torn, seriously outdated, or worn out clothes and shoes are a terrible look for anyone.
3)Flashy clothes or revealing clothes make it look like you are not professional.
4)Just because your job is casual dress does not mean you should wear the same clothes you wear when you sit around and watch TV.

As a younger person I think you can gain a huge advantage by dressing nice. Young people are assumed to be inexperienced and not as knowledgeable. Dressing nice can give a good first impression that you are knowledgeable. Of course you must follow that up with something of substance (dressing nice with sloppy work will get you no where).
My wife worked at a private company and at a young age was promoted into a position where she interacted with parents of children being taught at a private learning center. By dressing more conservatively, as well as styling her hair and accessories similarly, she was able to win the respect of the parents and gave most of them the impression she was over 30 when she was really 24. After getting to know her these parents were shocked to learn her real age. Had they known her real age when they first met her they would have likely been skeptical of her capabilities.
As a graduate student I always dressed up at conferences and was frequently asked by other attendees at which university was I a faculty member. By giving the impression I was older and perhaps wiser I was able to initiate conversations with some of the big wigs that would have otherwise blown me off.

I buy only half of your story. I have been to many conferences as a grad student, and have had friends who came to those same conferences both as grad students and faculty.

Making an assumption about someone's status (grad student and faculty) and voicing that assumption is downright wrong. If you "downgrade" the status of the person in front of you, that might seem insulting. If you "upgrade", that might seem naive.

Best is to ask and remember.

n/m

Yes, dress nice. Nobody I knew, male or female, that pushed the sloppy/sexy/casual dress envelope did very well. In any work environment.

Oh, and shave. Jesus H Christ shave everyday. The other day I got an icecream cone at Dairy Queen and some high-school/college-age guy waited on me and he was attempting one of those super-casual rocker beards. Looked like about 3 weeks growth with no trimming. I don't know what he sees the mirror everyday but it was sick. Dark black coarse hair going all kinds of crazy directions and patchy at the edges. It looked like pubic hair, plain and simple. I don't care what kinda people you hang out with, the sight of that beard would gag a buzzard.

The short answer is no. The long answer is no because if you are talking about dressing up for work, it won't really matter if you are incompetent at what you do. If your friends judge you based on clothes then you are better off without them. If you manage to snag a floosie because of your clothes , well then the less said the better. Clothes only matter to the ridiculous industry called fashion and to desperate starlets.

wp746911 said: Noone has ever gotten in trouble, demoted, not advanced, or made less money b/c they overdressed/looked nice-

... unless they were dressed markedly better than their boss.

You already mentioned the interview situation. However, a lot of internal transfer are not formal interview situations - you may just do an informal chat with the potential manager about a position or he may have run into you multiple times. All he may remember is that you were bursting out of your clothes since the clothes were too tight [this is real!].

I personally find that the cost of men's clothes is not that high (when bought on a decent enough sale). So I don't let cost be a factor in what I wear. I don't pay as much attention to fashion - but I do buy higher quality product (fabric/design) and I don't buy something just because it is cheap - I better like it! Same thing goes for my son - can't have my son looking as if his Dad has no money for him or does not pay attention to him (and obviously, giving him attention is lot more than just good clothes).

The hardest part is when to retire something. When bought new, the clothes looked great. Over time, they do appear slightly faded or fabric looks slightly worn out. I suspect that I like a few of my polo shirts so much that I keep using them but I should have probably retired them earlier.

oxomania said: I am a chemist following a technical track in a small town. Effective communication and being innovative is worth much more than your dress. That being said, not being able to distinguish whether you are a scientist or a technitian is a poor decision.
Good to see another chemist in FWF.

goat6500 said: Yes, dress nice. Nobody I knew, male or female, that pushed the sloppy/sexy/casual dress envelope did very well. In any work environment.

Guess you never knew anybody that owned their own business, tshirts and jeans/shorts was all I ever wore.

CrazierRus said:

Don't forget about "shaving" bonus too - I only have to shave when my wife makes me
Have had my beard since I was 18 so wife has no say on that. If she told me to shave I would tell her to shave it also

RS4Rings said: CrazierRus said:

Don't forget about "shaving" bonus too - I only have to shave when my wife makes me
Have had my beard since I was 18 so wife has no say on that. If she told me to shave I would tell her to shave it also

We are in different boats - I don't keep beard/mustache, it doesn't look right on me at all, but I do not like shaving. So I have to be told once in a while: "Sweetie, how about you shave today?"

CrazierRus said:

We are in different boats - I don't keep beard/mustache, it doesn't look right on me at all, but I do not like shaving. So I have to be told once in a while: "Sweetie, how about you shave today?"
Then you need to change your avatar picture. Grew mine at 18 to look older to sneak into bars, Maybe at 48 it's time to get rid of to look younger? But don't like big beards, trim mine every few days to keep it just a little more than stubble.