Advice for interview wear...

[follyfoot]

Help! Got an interview next week; havent had one for years but got made redundant in October. As I've been working mostly from home for almost 7 years am a bit out of touch with what would be best to wear.

Have got a nice Jaeger suit - navy blue with a faint pin stripe - but would that be a bit 'formal' these days? Alternatively have a nice grey cashmere tunic this one which I thought I could maybe wear with straight black trousers (if I could find a pair)?

Was made redundant from quite a senior job, and this one is much more junior so only concern with the suit is it might look a bit 'managerly'?

Advice very gratefully received

What kind of company is it? Is it one where people would dress formally anyway, or more of a creative type place where anything goes?

If the first, I would err on the side of being overly formal, rather than less so. The suit sounds good - you could go very classic and just wear it with a white shirt, sheer tights (if it's a skirt) and smart shoes. Then simple and classic make-up/hair.

When I was interviewing for the role I'm in now, I was always more formally dressed (dress suits, "City" shirts) than the people interviewing me, but it helped keep me in a better frame of mind and I would have hated if it was the reverse.

If it's creative, wait for someone more knowledgable to come along.

I would wear the suit trousers/skirt with a plain white cotton shirt and a navy/grey cardigan

Thanks for the comments -its an NHS role, so not creative. Will go for some version of the suit then rather than the tunic.....

I would wear formal for an interview no matter how informal the working environment.
I work in the NHS and have been part of the interview panel for a number of roles. Failure to dress appropriately for interview in formal business wear is always frowned open and would make me think you were not taking the job seriously enough.

The tunic will come in useful when you get the job

Good luck!

Thanks absofcroissant

Think you misunderstood me a bit mousema - I wasnt suggesting not dressing formally, having been a senior NHS manager for years, I would always dress appropriately. Was just wondering whether only suits were still considered de rigeur or other formal attire might be acceptable these days.

Definitely the suit for that kind of job. Bad luck on being made redundant - hope the intvu goes well. Good Luck!

I would wear the suit, but 'soften' it a bit with a scarf.

The suit for sure in that sort of job and sector. I've worked with NHS for years and they always wear suits to our meetings.

I know this is pointing out the bleedin' obvious but leave plenty of time to get to the interview - DH was interviewing last week, one candidate who was the front runner on paper was 50 minutes late and before he even got into the room DH had decided he hadn't got the job for being so rude - harsh but true!

Best of luck!

Thanks again for all the good luck wishes. Have been shortlisted for 3 other jobs but all fell whilst we were away on a holiday planned long ago so missed them all; talk about bad timing.

Will make sure I get there nice and early HBBB, will be strange, last had an interview in '98 aargh. When I moved away from the area I worked in, they asked me to stay on and work from home so didnt have an interview then either bites nails nervously

Four more applications in too, so everything crossed.

No i did understand you but having read the answer back I can see why you might have thought I was being a bit abrupt.

I was talking in more general terms rather than trying to suggest you were unprofessional which I'm sure you are not :) I should have made this more clear.

Best of luck for your interview!

I work in the City and actually rarely wear 'suits' - I go more for smart separates.

However, out of the two choices, I would go for the suit. You could soften it a bit with a pastel or coloured fine knit jumper underneath rather than a shirt. Or a plain white shirt and some strong brightly coloured jewellery is nice and looks a bit less like school uniform.

Tunic is lovely but a wee bit casual.