
Dress for the Job You Want - bhartzer
https://twitter.com/bhartzer/status/1208905677814542342
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slyall
Of course these days the janitor doesn't work for the TV company. He works for
a cleaning company that has the contract to clean the place. So nobody can
just flip him over to a new job, even for an evening.

I wonder how this affect IT long term. So many people I know got into IT via
the helpdesk and then moved up and sideways into another position. These days
at many places the helpdesk is often widely separated (and sometimes
outsourced) from the rest of IT. A lot less chance for the smart helpdesker to
become a Sysadmin.

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sharkmerry
These stories always seem to ignore the survivorship bias.

Also, just noticed you are posting your own tweets and are in SEO so this
feels like self-promotion

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bluejellybean
Probably some survivorship bias, but ultimately how you dress and handle
yourself is essential, and this is especially true for people who you are
meeting for the first time.

When I was in high-school we had a few teachers who's motto was "Dress for
success", they repeated it a lot, and we even had a dress-up day that people
participated in. I took this advice to heart and have kept a close eye on both
my appearance and grooming. I try and dress sharp, always slightly at or above
the crowd but never below. This translates into 'business casual' for most
software jobs I've been at.

Although it's impossible to measure accurately, I can say that in my personal
experience, if you're the person dressed appropriately, the people who matter
notice. I've been pulled into very important client meetings, ones that were
way above my position, precisely because I was dressed much more
professionally than the rest of my programming colleagues who insisted that a
hoodie and flip flops were workplace attire.

I've also had the experience, a surprising number of times in my short career
mind you, of seeing various clients and exec types come into my office, scan
the room, and then decide to come talk to me. I asked one of them once why
they came and spoke to me specifically as I was just a software dev. Their
answer was something to the effect of "You just looked like you knew what was
going on around here."

My thought on dress is simple; I am working to make my company/bosses look
good. This means that I work hard and do a damn good job, and it also means
that when a very important mucky muck steps into the office to see if they
want to sign some big contract with us, I appear successful and confident. If
I appear successful and confident, the client will be a whole lot more likely
to feel at ease knowing they're not gambling their money or time away to
someone who doesn't care enough to keep themselves groomed.

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johnnyo
They told me to dress for the job I want, but then HR told me I can’t dress
like Batman.

So, this doesn’t always work.

