[​​White Belt] First impressions matter. Think about this topic before your first day on the job.

First, a disclaimer: there are “corporate image consultants” who specialize in helping people dress for success. I’m not one of them.

Programmers may not be judged by their clothes as much as, say, executives or salespeople. Even so, the people around us have their biases. You can choose to challenge them or decide you’re better off picking a different battle. Either way, choose consciously.

Perceptions

We humans haven’t lost our capacity for instinct—we will make snap decisions about situations and people in a split second. The R-mode, pattern-matching part of our brain will make a decision before any conscious thought has time to process. “That person looks scary” or “That person looks professional” are thoughts that will run through our mind before the person has time to say a word.

This value judgment may be right or may be wrong. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Blink [Gla06], describes this judgment as a necessary way of dealing with the many people around us. We simply can’t afford the time to get to know everyone we meet on a deep, personal level before making any judgment about them. However, we have a skill of forming first impressions that serves us surprisingly well. It’s not perfect, but it has a darn good hit rate for taking only a couple seconds.

Look at how you’re dressed right now in the mirror. What value judgment would a stranger make in the first two seconds of meeting you? (Aside from shockingly attractive, of course.) Is that the image you want to project?

Norms

Our perceptions are shaped by our environment; what is “normal” for the region, industry, and company we occupy? A design firm in San Francisco is a fundamentally different environment—nearly a different universe—than a banking firm in New York City.

There are times it pays to stick with the norm. Your first couple weeks on the job is not the best time to make a bold statement. Meeting with a customer (when those opportunities come up) is a good time to look professional. These are times when you need to make good first impressions and/or represent your company well.

You can challenge the norms once you’ve earned some credibility on your team. For most West Coast companies, anything goes. (In East Coast and international settings, ask and look around.) Programmers have more freedom than most. At least in places I’ve worked, dying your hair purple and wearing knee-high boots (regardless of your gender) would hardly get a second look.

Of course, you may choose to stick with the norm on clothing and be bold in other ways; you could be the woman who gives Takahashi Method presentations with huge, bold text. Or you could be the guy who writes meeting agendas in Haiku.

Own Your Style

Whichever direction you choose for personal style, own it. You need to be confident in the image you project. If you can’t look in the mirror and think to yourself, “That’s me,” then fix it.

An example from my own life: I took the advice of “dress like the person whose job you want” and bought several traditional, corporate-style patterned shirts. After a couple months I stopped wearing them because I felt like a phony in corporate blue with pinstripes, and I’m sure that showed in my body language.

If you make a change, “try on” your new style starting on a Saturday. That gives you a few days out of the office to get used to it. Monday might shock some of your co-workers, but the key is it won’t shock you. I learned this tip after shaving my head on a Tuesday. Mistake. Not only did my co-workers hardly recognize me the next morning, I hardly recognized myself.

Neatness Counts

No matter what your style, do it with style. No matter if it’s jeans, dress, or slacks, keep them clean. Long hair or bald, get a trim now and then. People make a subconscious link between the neatness in your grooming and the neatness of your work.

Furthermore, you make a mental shift when you put some care into getting ready for work in the morning. If you roll out of bed and stumble into the office disheveled and half asleep, your work will reflect that. If you prepare thoughtfully for the day, your work will reflect that.

Actions

• Take a half hour—enough time to think about this for real—and write down a description of the image you want to project at work. If that’s not the image you’re projecting now, what do you need to change?

• Pull all the clothes out of your closet. Only put back the pieces that are still your style and fit well. Donate or sell the rest.