Interview Attire

I'm replying because this stressed me out so much a few years back.

I don't think anyone's going to make too harsh a judgment on this front, as long as you're dressed basically appropriately. You should be, like, showered and not too wrinkled. I have friends and a husband who've made a go of it with thrift store suits for interviews and weddings and such.

I interviewed primarily in the northeast, in academic programs in northern cities-- probably as formal as it gets. While it's true that psychiatrists are not, overall, the most stylish of physicians (or ... people ...), I found those in Boston and NYC to be quite a bit fancier.

I was a broke medical student at the time of interviews. I bought a navy suit at Banana Republic (jacket, skirt, pants) on a 40% off day (there are always sales somewhere!), and I wore skirt or pants depending on weather/what was clean/whatever. I wore hose with the skirt, much as I hate hose. And I had a 2-inch heel, but only because I can pretty comfortably walk in heels. I had one white button-down shirt and one cream silk blouse, and mixed and matched those with the outfit. I kept jewelry simple, and some of it was borrowed. The only watch I had at the time was a pretty grody old running watch, so I threw that in my bag, but didn't wear it once I arrived at interviews (it then completely fell apart in Seattle somewhere on the UW campus). I carried a leather bag. It was a fairly conservative outfit, but I found that to be the norm.

I'm about as liberal as they come (and my application definitely reflected this, right down to an early career in human rights), but I really didn't want my interview outfit to be any sort of distraction. If nothing else, keep what you wear simple and well-fitted. You don't need expensive clothing. In fact, even as a resident now, I really believe, like downwithDTB, that flashy and expensive pieces are a distraction to patient care.

But DO get your pants properly tailored if they're dragging (they will last longer if you do this, anyway!) and spend five bucks on shoe polish. For men, I don't know as much about suit tailoring. I get that it's expensive; I think that my husband has in the past managed to get just sleeves shortened on an otherwise well-fitted jacket.

You don't have to dry clean a suit often at all, either.

For pre-interview dinners, I mostly wore a fitted black dress with tights and boots, and more fun jewelry. I may have done nice jeans/boots/sweaters at some of the obviously casual gatherings.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Interview Attire