One thing I have learned so far is to be rather overdressed than underdressed when you’re at any business events or even interviews. Recently, I attended a networking event where the dress code was business causal. Therefore, I just wore a khaki and dress shirt with a tie. Once I arrived at the event, majority of people were wearing full suit or simply suit. Although they were a few people who were wearing khaki and dress shirt, I felt very underdressed. Going to the event, I was thinking more about how I should approach business professionals and less thinking about the dress code. However, it was a different story once I got to the event site. Luckily, everyone was kind and didn’t seem to care what I was wearing, but more interested about my story and background. From this experience, I learned that it is better to wear suit even though it’s a networking event. If you don’t want to wear a suit, then wear at least a black pants and dress shirts with a tie so that you can blend with the crowd.
Another occurrence was when I had a causal interview with a company I used to work for and I knew the interviewer. However, my shirt was not ironed as my interviewer noticed during the interview. I remembered that day, I wasn’t prepared for the interview as I just found a dress shirt in my closet and wore without any ironing. After the interview, I sent an apology email to my interviewer for unacceptable dress code. Although it didn’t affect my job offer, I learned that I don’t want to be in this situation again.
