by Lisa Shaver

Created on: August 09, 2009   Last Updated: August 10, 2009

Dress for the position you want: not for the position you have. This is great advice. Of course, depending on the area of work that you do, this can vary. There are many different careers out there and some have a very defined dress code. Construction workers would not wear a suit to the job site, and a lawyer would certainly not wear jeans and a t-shirt to work.

As a mom who writes from home, I can wear my pajamas to work if I choose to. However, I get up every morning and get ready for my day like I would do working outside the home. I believe that even those of us that work from home should still make an effort to dress appropriately. For me and many others, that does mean I can wear jeans and a t-shirt.

Women and men working in offices should wear suits to work. At the very least dress pants and a nice top. Unless it is casual Friday, running shoes should never be worn to an office job. In fact, when I worked for Eddie Bauer as a sales associate, we were not allowed to wear running shoes to work. If you dress nicely, not only will your boss notice the effort that you put in, but his boss will notice too. Dressing to impress pays off and people do notice. Dressing in raggedy jeans and a hoodie will get noticed to of course, just in the time-to-start-handing-out-resumes kind of way.

Some jobs have uniforms and that makes it so much easier to get ready for work. The thing to remember here is that what will make you stand out when wearing a uniform, (and this probably does not count as much for fast food employees as it might for a black jack dealer), is that accessories will give a hint as to your personality. This allows you to add just a hint of a personal touch.

Teachers can wear whatever they want (within reason,) but it is always best to go with the business casual approach at minimum. Wear khakis instead of jeans. Even better, wear a nice skirt or dress, but definitely dress for comfort. Elementary teachers especially as they tend to spend some time on the floor with their class. As well, there is also physical education time to consider.

Dressing for work should not be rocket science. What you wear tells the upper management that you are serious about your position within their company and that you want to advance, or it tells them that while you get the job the done you really do not care about the company image or your own. If you don't care about your own image why should anyone else?

So rule of thumb, take a hint and dress for the position you ultimately want to have. If you are a receptionist but you want to be a manager dress like a manager would. It will pay off and people - the right people - will notice.

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