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Because 99% of the time, your appearance is saying more about you than you realize

Whether you think wearing flip-flops to interviews is fine, or whether you’re still a believer in a more formal  approach, we all know that clothes are an important part of making a good impression in the interview.  But a great ‘interview suit’ is just the beginning.

Experienced recruiters and hiring managers are sort of like that guy on The Mentalist:  They become so adept at picking up non-verbal cues  during interviews that they seem almost psychic in their ability to accurately assess a person’s personality, working style, life-stage, and what motivates them work-wise – often within the first few minutes of the interview.  (In fact, the best recruiters are so good at it that it happens automatically and unconsciously.)

It’s all about the details.

Experienced recruiters and hiring managers will notice the details about your appearance in the first few moments, but even less experienced ones will have plenty of time (i.e. the 30-60 minutes you’re going to spend with them in a small, windowless interview room) to observe you – and what they see is going to tell them just as much about you as what you say.

For example:

“I always think cufflinks are a good sign,” says one of our senior recruiters.  ”For men and women, actually.  It’s a good indication that they not only care about their appearance, but are willing to put in some extra effort – and it tells me that they probably have high standards and a good work ethic.”

Good grooming could be the difference between
“You’re on the shortlist!” and “No, thanks.”

Your hands may be doing the talking – but not saying what you’d like them to:

“I recently interviewed a woman who, on paper, had some great skills and experience, and we’d had a great conversation on the phone.  But when she came to the interview, I noticed that her fingernails were not only bitten down, but dirty – it was like she came to the interview straight from changing her oil or planting stringbeans!  Not a good impression for someone going for a VP role – we ended up going with another candidate.

You know, if she’d gotten a manicure before the interview, we probably would have hired her.”

Saying you’re detail-oriented is good.
Demonstrating it is better.

Good grooming isn’t about solid-gold cufflinks or French manicures or engaging a personal glam squad.  It’s about the message(s) you’re sending to the interviewer, such as:

1. You’re detail-oriented
2. You’re really interested in the job and willing to make the effort to get it
3. You’d be the type of employee who’d go the extra mil
4. You’d be a good representative of the employer and their brand
5. You see yourself realistically (whereas the woman with dirty fingernails was oblivious)
6. You’re going to make the interviewer look like a rockstar for hiring you

Is your overall interview presentation delivering against these 6 messages?

The pre-interview grooming checklist

Before you leave the house to go to your next interview, ask yourself these questions:

• Do my socks match?  (Spend 60 minutes in an interview room with someone and they will definitely notice that you’re wearing one blue sock and one black one.)
• Do my clothes fit properly? (Fiddling with suffocating collars or blouses that gape during an interview are distracting for both interviewer and interviewee.)
• Are my clothes in good condition?  If I raise my arm, will the interviewer see a big hole in the armpit of my shirt?
• Are my fingernails clean?  Are they all the same size and shape, or do they look like I trimmed them with garden shears?
• Does my facial hair look like it’s had recent maintenance, or does it look like I’ve just returned from spending a year living with a pack of husky dogs in the Arctic?
• Do my shoes look like they’ve recently been cleaned and shined?  Do these high heels make me totter around like a newborn giraffe?
• Does my overall appearance demonstrate that I understand the brand/image the organization wants to convey?  (In other words, a soul patch and a fauxhawk are fine for an interview with an ad agency, but not for a Big 5 consulting firm.)