Career Guest Post; Interview Appropriate Fashion & Beauty

Being asked to a job interview is a scary time in anyone’s life, and there are plenty of guides and tips out there to help you to prepare for these interviews, giving you information on how to get your skills out there and telling you to arrive on time, but very few guides will go in to great detail about what to wear past telling you to wear ‘smart or business wear’. 

Hopefully these two outfit and beauty look creations will help you in this department. Whilst few will admit it, and it’s certainly not the best thing to preach, people do make assumptions about you and a large portion of their first impression of you is based on how you look and how you present yourselves – so make it a good impression!

For the first look I put together, I wanted to keep it quite demure and not as stand out as my second outfit choice, keeping the colours darker and an overall more sophisticated look. I really like the Topshop dress in this almost plum colour, especially with the slit sleeves and it gives the smart dress a different edge. I also paired it with a simple black blazer, a staple for any interview-attending person! I chose to go with cream shoes, as, although an odd choice, will stop the outfit from being all one colour, with not too high a heel and in a fairly simple design. They tie in really nicely with the New Look bag in cream and black, which is incredibly smart as well as having plenty of space for all those essentials you will need like passports, CVs and references for those interviews. 

For jewellery, I thought a watch would look really good with this look, as it’s more of a business look, but I wanted to put a bit of personality and mystery in the necklace, so I went for this birds necklace from Boohoo, tying in the gold with the gold buckling on the bag. 

I wanted to keep the makeup look really simple on this too, by going for a cream blush to allow for easy blending and to give a glow to your cheeks. I also went for a pale pink nail varnish colour, which can look really good with any skin tone and isn’t a distraction. I went for a brighter lipstick to stop the makeup look looking too boring, as a completely nude look, I felt, would make the shoes and nail polish look too washed out against the dark colours of the outfit, so I went for a red lipstick to tie it all together. I went for the Estee Lauder Pure Rouge lipstick as it isn’t as pigmented as other red lipsticks, and is really moisturising too to give a sophisticated look.

The second outfit I went for was a much more elegant and bright outfit, which I think would work really well if you are going for an interview with a relaxed environment or if you want to brighten up your look. I wanted to keep the dress really simple again, this time going for a wrap-around look dress in cream, with a copper belt. I really like the flowing material on the side of the skirt of the dress as it gives something interesting to the design, and can be a very slimming feature, making this outfit perfect for plus size women like me too! I think blue and white is a really nice colour combination, and incredibly elegant, so I went for a waterfall blazer from New Look, which with a big collar can distract from a larger bust or give an accentuated shape to a smaller bust. I also went for blue running through the shoes and the accessories, choosing these gorgeous shoes from Debenhams, which are perfect for an interview in the summer, and with a mid-low heel are also very easy to walk in and good to wear all day without getting sore feet (if you’re rubbish in heels like I am). 

I brought the blue through into the ring, choosing quite a statement ring as I was wanting to keep the necklace and makeup simple. I kept the gold theme going into the necklace, which I think works really well with the copper on the belt and the bag in just a simple shape. I went for a brown bag to give more of a smart, business feel to the outfit and to break up the colours a little. Whilst this bag is beautiful, as all Marc Jacobs bags are, it’s incredibly pricey at £200, especially if you are going to interviews for the first time, but there is a fantastic range of brown satchel bags that I’m loving at the moment from the Cambridge Satchel Company and in New Look. 

For the makeup, unlike in my first outfit, I wanted to keep the look very nude, as I don’t think such bright makeup would look good with the light clothing. I wanted to use a bronzer in this look as I think it would look better with the white clothing, as opposed to a pink or orange toned blush, so I went for the No7 Mosaics blush, which has just a small hint of pink to life the bronze. I also went for a subtle pink in the lipstick, going for the Maybelline Superstay lipstick, which is really smooth. I kept the eyeshadow along the theme of the bronzed pink tones, going for the nude quad from Rimmel London – the range of quads which I’m loving at the moment!

Despite what many may think, going to a job interview doesn't mean you have to dress in all black or grey and wear no makeup! Let your personality shine through too, give it some colour and put on a smile – if nothing else, at least you will stick in the interviewers mind. Happy job hunting!

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Blog: http://www.rachaelmckenzie.blogspot.com
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