The question caught me by surprise, although it shouldn’t have.
After
all, some ten years before, in much the same position, I had found
myself worrying over precisely the same problem. And — unlike the young
woman who had just e-mailed me — I had never worked up the courage to
ask.
What should I wear?
It sounds so trivial — like a
show about fashion mistakes on late-night cable TV. But to young people
beginning their searches for internships and first jobs, it’s not.
Dress codes in the journalism workplace in 2006 confound them.
Especially
women, and especially young women on today’s college campuses — where
going-to-school outfits range from yoga pants and hoodies to dressy
ensembles encrusted with bling and paired with strappy sandals. They
honestly have no idea. And they honestly want to know.
“This
might seem a bit odd,” wrote the young woman in her e-mail to me, after
she learned that she had landed a summer internship at the paper where
I work. “But I’m actually wondering what’s appropriate attire… I know
that I won’t be wearing jeans and sneakers, but I need a bit of
guidance here. I feel really silly sending this e-mail, but I would
really appreciate the help, since my personal style is probably a bit
too funky for the office.”
She was right about that. I know this
young woman well: I advise the student newspaper at the big university in town where she is a student. I know she is
talented and bright, if a bit unfocused and unformed — the latter
qualities being those that internships are intended to correct. I know she
has a great sense of humor, loves socializing, has a million friends. I
also know that she tends toward midriff-baring cropped tops, spiky hair,
tight jeans, stiletto heels and facial piercings. (True confession: I
had been guilty of some of the same sins in college. But still.)
I
also know she trusts me — another woman, a decade ahead of her on the
job track — for good advice. And I didn’t want to let her down. Here’s
the essence of what I wrote back.
Dear S,
Back in the day, the rules about dress codes in newsrooms used to be
pretty rigid. Ties, jackets, and nice shirts for the guys, skirts and
heels for the women — that was how it was at the newspaper where I
work, even 30 or 40 years ago. Old pictures of the newsroom look almost
comical today – everybody looks like they’re ready for a high-school
dance.
Things have changed a lot since then. And then again, they haven’t.
Let me explain.
Some
people in the newsroom — the older folk, especially — still hold tight
to those long-ago unwritten rules about how reporters should look. They
wear jackets and ties every day, Monday through Friday (and, being
impecunious reporters, it’s usually the SAME jacket and tie). You’ll
also be hard-pressed to find an editor or management-level staffer in
anything less than a tie or business suit.
But lots of people
are more casual now. You can get away with casual slacks and golf
shirts. One woman reporter I know wears strappy, foot-baring sandals
all the time. One guy in the newsroom never wears anything but jeans.
There are good and bad sides to that.
Yeah,
you’ll be more comfortable. And yeah, you’ll fit in better if you get
sent to a high school to interview teenagers for a story.
On the other hand, your goal this summer is simple: you want to be taken seriously.
That’s
the reason why being an intern and navigating a newsroom dress code
can be tricky. You want to impress people — Let’s be blunt, here! — and
emerge with good contacts and references, maybe even a job offer. In
order to do that, you need to look as professional and “adult” as
possible, within reason. (That doesn’t necessarily mean stuffy and
stodgy.)
A specific example: an intern at our paper a few years
back had weird spiky hair that changed colors every few weeks. I loved
it, personally, but the editors in upper management found it hard, for
quite a while, to take her seriously. They focused more on the hair
than the person. Luckily, this young woman had real skills and soon
proved that she could handle the job very capably. Still, you don’t
want this to happen to you. Why start off with strikes against you?
Weird hair? Bad idea. Piercings and visible tattoos? Also bad. I’d avoid jeans entirely. Save those for your off-hours.
But
you don’t have to wear skirts and heels all the time, either. Depending
on the assignments you get, that might not even be practical. Like,
what if you have to go cover the corn festival in heels, or work night
cops in a dress? I’ve done it; it’s not fun. The wrong clothes can
make your job a lot harder than it needs to be. Remind me to tell you
about the time, right after 9/11, when I found myself covering the
terrorism story on the ground in New York City in the same set of
clothes — for six days.
Go with bland and conservative attire,
in short, until you get used to the place and figure out what’s okay
and what’s not. Dressy pants are a good choice for women, or skirts, if
that’s your preference, but keep the shoes sensible. Here’s the key:
dress the way the best reporters in the room do — you want to be seen
as their heir apparent in this profession. With a few exceptions, you
won’t find them in scrubby-looking or outrageously weird clothes.
The
best advice on dressing for a career in journalism I ever got came from
my dad, a lifelong reporter and editor himself. He said he always tried
to find the middle ground so that he’d fit in with his interview
subjects and not make them feel uncomfortable. A guy in shirtsleeves
fits in among cops at a crime scene; if he got sent to interview the
mayor, he could throw on a tie and the jacket he kept hanging on a peg
near his desk. That’s an ideal we should strive for: making your
clothes a facet of your performance that blends in and lets you focus
on getting the best story you can.
Remember: You want the focus
to be on your work, not on you. Save the glam for the weekends, and let
the people in the newsroom know you mean business when you walk through
the door. The right look is the right way to start.
