Case Interview: What To Wear

What to wear to a case interview should not be overlooked! We actually get a fair numberCase-Interview What to Wear Graphic of questions about this. When you think about how many applicants consulting firms get, and how many they actually give offers to, you look for any little edge. So listen as Jenny Rae very clearly lays out what both men and women should wear to their case interview, things to pay attention to, what not to wear to an interview, what color to wear to an interview, and ultimately how to get that little edge in your favor!

Case Interview: What To Wear YouTube Transcription

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.

Case Interview Dress Code:

What To Wear To An Interview Men

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.

What Color To Wear To An Interview

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.

Men What To Wear To An Interview Summary

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.

What To Wear To An Interview Women

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.

What Color To Wear To An Interview

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.

Women: What Top To Wear To An Interview

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.

Don’t Be Distracting

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.

What To Wear To An Interview Conclusion

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.

Wrap Up

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.

Related Content:

Filed Under: Case Interview