Adage revisited: “Dress for the job you want, not for the job you have”

It’s about a lot more than fashion and projecting confidence.

There is certainly solid strategic value in looking the part, so to speak, but the deeper lesson is about becoming the person you want to be by metaphorically putting on the clothes or wearing the hat. It suggests that conducting yourself, learning, growing, and changing in preparation and anticipation of getting the job you want, or better becoming the person you want to be, is the surest path to making it reality.

So often we do the opposite. We wait to be anointed before taking action. For example, we only become on a manager after receiving the promotion. We “settle down” after getting married. We embrace responsiblity only after our first child is born. Certainly many of us have experienced being thrown into the fire like this, learning on the job but it’s not the easiest path or the one that leads most reliably to success.

There are two key reasons following this adage makes it more likely that you’ll be prepared when the outcome you desire arrives:

It’s good strategy

Something that’s always made on impression on me when hiring are the candidates who make it hard not to hire them. They’re so prepared, so thorough, so confident that they’ve made my decision to hire them a no-brainer. The best candidates already feel like part of the team after a few conversations. You just know they’ll be successful. *They’ve also probably learned the biggest secret to getting a job: the person hiring you is just a another human doing the best they can. They’re afraid of failing, disappointing their boss, or for making the wrong decision. Make their job easy. Make hiring yourself the lowest risk, most obvious option. These candidates understand what it means to dress for the job you want. They’ve imagined what the ideal person for the job looks like and have become it.

Perhaps they picked up new skills, have been practicing, or researching. Or maybe they were already the ideal candidate but dressing for the job meant showing others — simply communicating — that they’re the right person. Your appearance, behavior, and actions can demonstrate that you’re either ready for that promotion or not.

In some ways the bar for being a solid employee is lower than ever. Even some of the most brilliant and talented candidates fail at the fundamentals: being nice, showing up on time, doing what you say you’ll do, doing what needs to be done without being asked. You can get a lot of jobs simply by nailing those four things.

It’s habit-forming

For anyone who’s ever had to wear and suit and tie you know how uncomfortable it can be. It’s so constricting! Everything is tight, buttoned, tucked-in, buckled, stiff and layered. Oh so many layers, this thing is a million degrees! You can barely breathe with that silk noose around your neck, much less relax. And you know what, if you’re uncomfortable in that suit everyone around you will know it. The hiring manager in the interview and your new team on your first day as manager. But if you wear one for a few weeks it becomes second nature and before long you look like you’ve never worn anything else.

So dressing for the job you want sometimes means, just that. Get comfortable in the uniform until it becomes habit. But we should also get comfortable as the person for the job so it becomes habit, too.

Take, for example, someone who wants to be married. It seems like many people look at their single life as a time of freedom, to indulge every selfish desire, to sow wild oats and wring every last pleasure out of life until they need to “settle down and get married”. This goes against our adage in two ways:

1. Habits are hard to break. Expecting to live a wild life and then shut it off like a switch one day after the honeymoon is unlikely to be successful. However, putting on your metaphorical suit and tie and living as if you were married even when you’re not means you’ll have the habits and discipline to help you succeed when you do take on the role of a spouse.
2. You don’t look the part. Just like you want to resemble the right person for the job (both inside and outside) when your boss strolls through the office considering who to promote, you’re going to be more appealing to someone who’s also seeking a spouse if you look and behave like a reasonable, responsible and kind person.

Marriage is just one example among many. We do this all the time, expecting to be a different person, to behave differently only when our external circumstances change or only when someone tells us who or what we are.

I’ll get serious about studying when I get to college. I’ll start giving to charity once I get my debt paid off. I’ll be more responsible once I turn 25. I’ll start really putting in the effort once they finally promote me. Do any of those sound familiar? In every case that person would be better prepared for that future date if they started living as if it were already here. What’s more, they might just make the future arrive sooner!