Practical Career Strategies - Dress Code

I will randomly post gold nuggets of wisdom on practical career strategies. Most of them will be based on personal experience and several books I've read in the past. I appreciated these tips throughout my professional life and I'm certain you will too.

It doesn't matter if your workplace has a business casual dress policy. This is a trap. People (especially Executives) are judgmental and will totally assume certain things about you based on what you wear to work.

If you're a man, do not wear dress shorts to work. Seriously. 

I don't care if you look like Brad Pitt or that devastatingly handsome dude named Turkish from Snatch. You won't be able to pull of this look, even if your friends tell you it's totally rockin' the Miami Vice vibe.  You will never be promoted and people will laugh behind your back (or worse, they will laugh in your face).

Instead, wear jeans and a dress shirt. If your ego is out of control and you really really want to stand out, wear a suit jacket paired with a crisp white shirt and jeans. People will look at you and think Tom Ford.

If you're a woman, that outfit you bought from Le Chateau or Stitches or some other random store in a mall looks good. In a club. Or if you're at a bachelorette party. Or if you're doing some sort of extreme speed dating thing. Or if you're with Hugh Hefner.

How can you be taken seriously at work if you look like this while doing a presentation or chairing a meeting? How??? Exactly.

Blame Canada (or, a haiku slash random thoughts on how much I love this country)

 

I am so excited that it is (was) Canada Day long weekend. I am more excited that it is a long weekend. Anyway, this is how I spent the days leading up to it (and during, I suppose).

Thursday

Woke up at dawn and ran 4 Km.

Went to work super excited about the possibility of leaving work early (helped by moving meetings around and/or cancelling them altogether).

Listened to Top 100 hip-hop songs of the 90s (skipped any west coast gansta s*** except for Gin and Juice and G-Thang; desk-danced to Wu Tang Clan, Tribe Called Quest, Leaders of the New School, etc).

Worked on status reports.

Researched Roatan, Honduras (for upcoming winter vacation).

Worked on status reports.

Ate chicken souvlaki & rice courtesy of the nice cafeteria lady.

Kept working on status reports (while listening to 90s hip-hop and desk dancing).

Realized that I had a 3 PM conference call that I couldn't skip!

Did more research on Roatan, Honduras while participating in conference call as I listened to hip-hop and ate dried apricots.

Called Sunwing to inquire about the Henry Morgan Resort in West Bay, Roatan.

Called Sears Travel (shout out to Amanda Johnston who is the best Sears Travel agent I've come across so far).

Booked a 2 bedroom villa in West Bay, Roatan at Henry Morgan.

Motored home so I can receive fax, sign and fax back the paperwork.

Had dinner at Niji.

Went to bed at 1:00 AM (a luxury, since in order to do my dawn of the dead runs, I have to be in bed by 9:30 PM at the latest).

Friday (Canada Day)

Woke up at 11:30 AM (sooooooooo goooooooooooooodddddddddddddddd).

Asked Greggy to bring out the lounge for me so I can lay out in our Rivendell-esque backyard.

Laid out in the sun until 5 PM while reading Tina Fey's Bossypants.

Made roast chicken using bone-in thighs and boneless thighs, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, uber garlic Caesar salad.

Watched Hall Pass with Greggy.

Went to bed at midnight-ish (I think).

Saturday

(Greggy went to Port Dover & overnighted (?) overnit (?) stayed overnight at his best friend's cottage with the crazy dudes from Hammer).

Woke up at 10:30 AM.

Picked up one of my (only) good friends JBER, for some much needed catch-up time over lots of food.

Went to Golden Griddle. Do note I watched Man v Food the day before and have been jonesin' for some pancakes and sausage.

Source:yumachat.blogspot.com

What me and JBER had: pancakes, sausage, bacon, chicken, perogies, scrambled eggs, (he had an omelette), home fries, bread pudding, cinnamon buns, honeydew, Diet Coke (he had a coffee).

Checked out JBER's Ford Escape, since I'm thinking of SUVin' it next year (maybe).

Went to Marshalls and bought clothes. Insane after eating the above. But I'm feeling good about myself since I can eat that and run it off, suckas.

Went home. Realized T was home... this is a very rare sight these days. We decided to go to AMC and watch Midnight in Paris.

Snuck in an Isagenix shake in the theatre. I know I'm getting old when I also sneak in my Obusforme back support pillow - which I didn't use - since we got there 5 minutes before the movie started and people would have seen me sneaking in a shake and a roll.

Went home.

Decided we wanted to watch another movie, so we Rogers On Demanded the Season of the Witch. Not bad, but not life changing either.

Went to bed at midnight.

Sunday

Woke up at 8:30 AM.

Went downstairs to feed Pepper, then I brushed (combed?) her hair to try and get rid of the damn undercoat. She sheds like crazy, but I love her anyway.

Drove T and her friends to Sunday church.

Went back home and alternated watching GMA Pinoy TV and a travel show called "Which Way To..." (Egypt, for this episode).

Went to Adult Swimming Lessons at Olympian Swimming (12:30 to 1:30).

Went back home, laid out in the sun until 3:30 PM while continuing to read Bossypants.

Greggy's home now, all hung over and sunburned. I just finished washing my hair. Time to eat a healthy dinner, so Memories of Japan here we come.

Running Log - Week 6

We discovered the outdoor track at SATEC (thanks Freddie!) and have used it exclusively for training this week (Tuesday onwards).

Note: the length of the track is 400 m, as confirmed by the Phys Ed teacher at SATEC when I called pretending to be a parent of a track & field athlete looking to change schools.

6 laps x 400 m = 2.4 Km (I can do this in 15 minutes now). We run 10-12 laps at 5:15 AM, 4-5 times per week.

10 laps = 4 Km

Sun 26-Jun-11   - Rest -

Mon 27-Jun-11    30:05

Tues 28-Jun-11   31:10 (11 laps)

Wed 29-Jun-11   32:14 (4 Km)

Thurs 30-Jun-11  32:03 (4 Km)

Fri 01-Jul-11   - Rest -

Sat 02-Jul-11   - Rest -