Advice to Job Seekers: Dress as Boringly as Possible
If you're the kind of person whose sartorial style exudes even a molecule of panache or individuality, you might want to consider giving yourself a serious makeover before a job interview, assuming you can land one these days. Experts (well, image consultants desperately trying to adapt their superfluous services to the new economy) are warning that "casual or quirky" clothes might imply that, God forbid, you're a free-thinking risk-taker—which in this job market ranks somewhere below Satanist child-molester on the appealing employee scale.
"There is absolutely a move back to more formal dress for interviews," according to one omniscient authority. "I would err completely on the side of looking conservative and traditional." If only these geniuses had spread their wisdom sooner and dissuaded banks from hiring anyone with a flashy tie or too wide a pinstripe, and the economy might have been saved!
