Quote Originally Posted by Phil View Post
It is an inescapable fact of life that an individual will be judged by the way that he/she appears to the rest of society, irrespective of how good/intelligent/worthwhile that person may be. The young person dressed outlandishly with a mohican hairstyle, sporting tattoos and numerous piercings may have the best qualifications in the world and the most pleasant personality imaginable but will fail to get through the front door of 99% of employers just precisely because of appearance.
Dressing "properly" needn't involve a 3-piece suit, shirt and tie with well-polished shoes but a close approximation is likely to improve the individual's life chances considerably.

Fair enough, it's possible to be completely inappropriately dressed for an occasion. I hardly think someone wearing jeans and a t-shirt with an offensive slogan would be entertained at interview for a Doctor's practice or the police.

But that's an extreme. Having moved from an office environment in full time work to studying at university, what I have observed from my lecturers, some of whom are very senior in their field, that there is little or no link between standards of dress and percieved competency. Regardless of how students initially judge or perceive a lecturer when they walk into a room, we are usually in no doubt as to their ability about 20 seconds after they begin speaking.

If your job is to visually represent a company then it must be important, but lots of people never see customers face to face yet the interview panel still think it's important whether they polished their shoes or wore a matching tie.