Case interview attire. One of our favorite questions to answer emails on
when we get a question the day before an interview. "What should I wear?" "This or
that?" We even love the ones that come with pictures, people dressing up in
their interview outfits! And today we're gonna give you the lowdown on everything
that you need for what to wear in a case interview.
Hi, I'm Jenny Rae, Managing Director of Management Consulted, and we
get a lot of these great questions about case interview attire. So we thought we
would just build the definitive video on what to wear in a case interview today.
For guys, it's pretty straightforward. You're gonna need a blue suit. I mean you
could wear grey, and you could wear black, and if that's all you have don't go buy
a new suit for your consulting interview. But if you've got the choice, wear blue.
It's generally the color of consultants, a neutral choice that demonstrates that
you are an advocate, a kind listener, but intelligent. Across that you're gonna
not just want a blue suit, but you're gonna want a neutral and light colored
shirt to go with it. White's cool. Blues cool. Light pink is cool. But in general
you're gonna want a pretty neutral shirt, you can have a very slight pattern, but
not anything that is dramatic. And on top of that you need to wear a tie. Not a bow
tie even. If you're from the South. But you need straight-up tie. And the tie
should not be red. You're not looking for power here. This is not a banking
interview. This is something where you're trying to demonstrate trust and approach
ability. So, pink ties, those are cool. Blue ties- optimal. So ideally you've got dark
blue suit. You've got light blue shirt, you've got light blue tie, you got the
whole blue ensemble and you're ready to go. With your shoes you generally with
blue are gonna want to wear brown shoes. But again if you're gonna wear grey or
black, wear black shoes. So for men, pretty straightforward. You're gonna wear a
suit. You're gonna look fabulous in the suit. You're gonna make sure that the
suit connotes trust and approachability and not power. For women, I've got
some specific tips for you. When you go into the interview, you want to make sure
that you are not doing anything with your attire that is distracting. You or
the interviewer. So number one you're looking for pantsuit's. Ideally the pantsuit
is gonna come right to the ankles and you're gonna wear no more than a
three-inch heel underneath it. If you do that you don't have to wear pantyhose. If
you wear a skirt suit instead, you're gonna run into potential issues with
pantyhose runs, or if you don't wear pantyhose you gotta pay attention to all
the other things, if you know what I'm saying, around your leg area. So you want
to just make sure that you're covering it all up, wearing a very conservative
pant suit. In general for women, you're gonna wear darker pantsuit colors.
They're going to actually convey more power. And for men, they're looking for
approachability. For women, they're looking for strength. They want to know
that you have the ability to do what it takes to walk into the interview, to lead
with your analytics, and your safety, your gentleness, your approachability, that's
not going to be what wins you the interview. So generally darker colors for women, blue,
black, or grey, are gonna be awesome. When you're thinking about shirts that
go underneath your suit, you're thinking about anything that covers up 100% of
your cleavage. So depending on your cleavage level, you need to make sure
that you've got full coverage there. Also finally moving up into hair, makeup, and
jewelry, you want things that are generally more conservative. You will be
interviewing with people who are going to be in a more conservative space. It's
not that their political views are conservative, but financially and with
the clients that they're working with, these are risk averse type organizations.
So, you're going to want pearls or generally more simple earrings and
jewelry. You're gonna want not major flashy
watches or too many bangles for when you're writing. Rings are totally
fine but again, nothing that's too aggressive. If you have the opportunity
to do manicure that's always appropriate when you're going into the interviews.
And finally perfume and makeup- you don't want anything that's too much. The goal
is not to be distracting. So you don't want somebody to be able to smell you
from multiple areas across the room. You don't
want them to be distracted by the amount of makeup you have on. And you want to
come across as somebody who is powerful but natural in their own skin.
This is a lot to think about, admittedly, more for the ladies than for the men. But if
you do have questions about what to wear in the consulting interview, it all
comes down to this. You want to make sure that what you're doing is one level up,
in terms of formality from what you've seen from the people who've come onto
campuses, or that you've met with in person. You want to be comfortable in
your own skin. Ultimately, the interview is going to be about you and your
personality, more than anything else. And if you have questions about things that
are a little bit edgy, there are some things that will fit you and will be
appropriate. And especially based on certain offices, would be more
appropriate. So feel free to reach out and ask us about those. We still love to
get your pictures before the interviews, and we always love to hear what you
found works for you. So please reach out to us and let us know if you have
questions. We're at www.managementconsulted.com and on social.