Climb the Corporate Ladder by Dressing for Success  

The new year, the beginning of a new quarter or a new month are great times to set new goals and create new habits that stick.  If you hope to get a promotion or a new job, the first place to start is your wardrobe.  The longstanding advice to climb the corporate ladder has been to dress for the position you want, not the position you currently hold.  The challenge for women working in the technology field is that many times a female role model is non-existent, or the company’s dress code is jeans and a t-shirt even for the CEO.  Before you go spend a fortune on a new wardrobe, take inventory of what you have.  If you don’t clean out your closet each season, the new year is a perfect time.

To effectively clean out your closet, you need to look at things as they truly are, not as you want them to be.  Follow this Keep or Toss (donate) cheat sheet:

• If the item is so old you are hoping it comes back into style again, toss it.  Remember, fashion cycles about every ten years, and clothes don’t maintain their resilience for that long, especially when left on a hanger.
• If the item hasn’t fit since you bought it (or if you are hoping some day you fit into it), toss it.  Face it, it’s not going to happen.
• If it’s torn, stained, faded, or compromised in anyway, toss it or save it as a gardening or housecleaning item.

Any item that falls under any of these categories isn’t going truly make you feel your best and boost your confidence.

Once you’ve tossed out items that don’t embrace your resolution, take the next steps:

• Separate items by category, not by outfit.  Put all your pants together, then tops, dresses, and jackets.  Many times when an outfit is purchased, especially as a fashion trend or essential classic, you will find many other items you already have that you can coordinate with for new outfits and looks.  You can’t accomplish this if you only wear the items as the same outfit.
• Once you have the items together, sort again.  For tops, sleeveless to long sleeve, light fabrics to heavy fabrics, light colors to dark colors.  The same concept holds for pants: put jeans together and dress pants in another group.  Sort dresses from casual to work to evening.
• Don’t be too quick to put off-season items in storage.  Many current fashion trends can be worn for multiple seasons, except maybe wool sweaters in the summer. Dresses can be paired with boots and a jacket.  Layer summer camisoles with cardigans and scarves for colder weather.
• If you aren’t sure whether you’ve worn something nor not, at the start of a season, turn all of your hangers backwards.  After you’ve worn an item, put it back with the hanger facing the right way.  At the end of a season, you will clearly see what items were never worn.  Consider keeping the item for another season, but after two, there’s a reason why it was left on the hanger.

Now that you’ve got a perfectly organized, clean closet, take inventory of what’s missing.  Some classic essentials include trousers in multiple colors, timeless blazers, a sheath prom dress, classic a-line and pencil skirts, and a classy pair of blue jeans.  Once you have your foundation, then you can get creative with fashion trends to add color and flair.  Make it pop with jewelry if you are comfortable adding a little bling.  Every item should fit well and flatter your shape.  If you are not sure about the right fit, plenty of stores have personal shoppers or stylists on hand to help find the perfect silhouette — and they aren’t all high-end stores.

Having a solid foundation for professional wear allows you to slowly invest in other trendy items and continue to build out a professional wardrobe.  How will a new wardrobe for the new year help on your climb to the corner office?

• Your outfit gives you a boost of confidence that’s visible to your co-workers.
• Your techy co-workers who never notice that you’re actually a female will take notice, and compliments will become a norm.  The first few times you arrive in your new wardrobe, you may be asked, “Are you interviewing?”  After a few weeks of mixing and matching your new professional look, they’ll stop asking.  You may find that your fellow techy females start stepping up, too.
• The decision makers and leadership team will take notice of your new confidence and start to wonder what your true potential is.  New team members will think you are part of the leadership team.

Are you ready for a new year? Are you ready to dress up your image?