How can I vary my look for a two day interview when I only have one suit
Hi everyone,
Two weeks from now I’m interviewing for a position as a professor at a highly ranked research institution on the west coast and one in the mid west.
Academic job interviews begin from the moment you get picked up from the airport and generally run about two days. (3 if you count the travel days)
Day one is about 12 hours from breakfast to dinner with presentations and non-stop meetings, with students, faculty, and administrators. Day two is generally a half day but is chock full of meetings.
Sartorial Advice needed:
What can I do to change up the look of what I’m wearing enough that it doesn’t look like I’m wearing the same thing on two days.
What I have
I have two pairs of nice Allen Edmonds shoes (black fifth avenues, and chili fifth avenues)
A nice dress watch and a dive watch
I am planning on purchasing a navy blue suit from indochino.
I’ve debated purchasing some gray slacks for day 2 and forgoing the suit. I know I need at least two shirts.
What else can I do to vary my look/what staples am I missing.
I appreciate any advice and just in case anyone here is faculty the field is in the social sciences (not economics)
11 Replies
I would strongly advise against buying from indochino their quality is legendarily bad
Hmm, time/money becomes an issue then.
Do you have any recommendations on where I can get a decent suit on short notice around $500?
I would opt for the grey slacks instead and purchase maybe a couple ocbd shirts and a tweed sportcoat.
Tweed sport coats are a dime a dozen on ebay and the thrift and then have it tailored for much cheaper than 500
Appreciate the advice, I’ll consider it for sure. My concern is that I may be perceived as being underdressed.
I think it would be appropriate for an academia interview and more importantly i think it would look better than an indochino suit.
If you dont mind putting in some work i would check local thrift shops for suits too, you might get lucky and find something pretty decent for only a few bucks
Appreciated
Good luck partner. If you go thrifting for suits or coats feel free to post another q and a if you need a fit check
Thanks, going to look up some info on putting together a tweed sport coat look
Scrolling ig this happened to pop up on the jpress look book
Academic here. Wear it the day of your job talk. In fact, even that day you could likely get away with less depending on department. Med school, law school, etc. will be more formal and definitely wear a full suit for the talk, other departments it varies. The other day it's perfectly acceptable to wear a blazer or something.
Even in the upper echelons it's still academia. You'll be meeting with students wearing shorts and a t shirt, you may mistake your department chair for a homeless person on first sight, etc. Definitely don't stress about fashion specifics in this setting. Literally no one is going to notice unless you wear something profoundly weird. Wear what you feel confident in and can tolerate for 12+ hours straight with a meaningful amount of walking around
Just saw you said social sciences at the end. So you are definitely good with shirt and tie on the non-job-talk day
Feel free to message me if more questions. I literally teach a professional development seminar for (mostly social science) post-docs on this.
Thanks Steve, will dm