What would you advise your teenager to wear to a job interview?

[lauraljp]

Not sure what is appropriate now. I know I dressed up back in the day but I may have overdone it. Wore a dress to a job interview at Wendy's. My 17 year old son has an interview for a job at Target. Any suggestions? Would cargo pants and a polo shirt be good?

 

[emksmama]

IMO cargo pants are too casual...plain front khakis and a solid color polo (red!) would be best, with closed toe polished/non scuffed lace up shoes. Good luck to him!

 

[JKMJ441724]

IMO cargo pants are too casual...plain front khakis and a solid color polo (red!) would be best, with closed toe polished/non scuffed lace up shoes. Good luck to him!

this

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

IMO cargo pants are too casual...plain front khakis and a solid color polo (red!) would be best, with closed toe polished/non scuffed lace up shoes. Good luck to him!

I agree with this. Or I would say a dress shirt, slacks, dress shoes but no jacket or tie. I can tell you when I was interview to hire new employees, if they didn't at least dress nice casual I figured they weren't taking the interview seriously.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I say suit and tie. NO ONE wears them to interviews but if you do when I am interviewing you, you will be put on the 2nd list almost right away. I figure I can teach anyone anything, but if you WANT to be here, I want you here, too.

 

[KiKi Mouse]

I am curious how Target or any other places conduct interviews. Do you get points for what you are wearing?
I have taken an interview course where I work and you are not allowed to take into account the way somebody is dressed.

To answer the question from the OP. I thought that clean cargo pants and a polo shirt would suffice.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

I have taken an interview course where I work and you are not allowed to take into account the way somebody is dressed.

We don't have a standard procedure for what someone wears into an interview, but we do have a scoring matrix and a standard set of questions that everyone answers. I can tell you that the girl in jeans, a t-shirt, flip flops, with wet hair is not going to score very high overall. It is very difficult to take someone like that seriously.

 

[sbell111]

In general, one should dress for an interview either to the dress code of the job in question or slightly higher. Never below and never greatly higher.

As such, I wouldn't wear a tie to the interview. I would at least wear a nice golf shirt or dress shirt with pressed khakis. I probably wouldn't choose a red shirt as that is a bit too 'on the nose'. As I understand it, Target allows employees to wear pretty much any shoes, but I would likely go with brown leather.

 

[jeepgirl30]

I say suit and tie. NO ONE wears them to interviews but if you do when I am interviewing you, you will be put on the 2nd list almost right away. I figure I can teach anyone anything, but if you WANT to be here, I want you here, too.

I agree. I am surprised to see so many think casual is okay, it is a job interview. My company always has someone coming in for an interview and i'm amazed by what some people wear. I would never go to an interview in anything less than a suit.

 

[Janepod]

We don't have a standard procedure for what someone wears into an interview, but we do have a scoring matrix and a standard set of questions that everyone answers. I can tell you that the girl in jeans, a t-shirt, flip flops, with wet hair is not going to score very high overall. It is very difficult to take someone like that seriously.

This.

I do alumni interviews for my university, which is a top 20 school. The chairperson of our region often talks about applicants who are underdressed and how he does not take their interest in the school seriously. You don't know what the outlook/attitude of the interviewer may be. Better safe than sorry - go with Sunday Best.

 

[maslex]

When my DS16 interviewed for his job at the local grocery store, he wore black khaki's with a short sleeved button down shirt and black sneakers, I believe.

He got the job. Now his work uniform is black pants, white shirt & tie. Along with their apron.

 

[TDC Nala]

For this job he probably doesn't need a suit. But nice khakis, not cargos, and a button shirt or a polo. And decent shoes.

 

[charming23]

When I interviewed with Target a few years back I wore a nice skirt and top. There were a few guys being interviewed that day as well and they wore nice dress pants and button down shirts.

 

[Pixiedust34]

I'd lean toward a shirt with a tie for a guy and a skirt and nice top for a girl.

 

[luvmy3]

Khakis, button down dress shirt, nice shoes and a belt.

 

[famousmockingbird]

In my previous job, I had to interview a lot of teenagers (boys & girls) for volunteer opportunities. I would say a polo and plain khakis (pressed and neat) with closed-toe shoes. Even if it's a sneaker, I'd rather see that than flip-flops and toes during an interview. In my experience, the guys always did a better job of dressing for the interview than the girls.

 

[Cindy B]

My teenage sons standard job interview uniform was either black pants and a blue button down shirt -without a tie.

One time he was called quickly for an interview, he had on dark gray jeans- his black pants were in the wash-. He put on the button down shirt with the dark gray jeans and black shoes and he got the job.

 

[lauraljp]

Thanks for all the replies! I think he'll go with the dress pants, button dress shirt and dress shoes. Glad I posted!

Laura

 

[Schmeck]

Better safe than sorry - go with Sunday Best.

That would be my best pair of jammies, since that's all I wear on Sunday!

 

[Schmeck]

In my previous job, I had to interview a lot of teenagers (boys & girls) for volunteer opportunities. I would say a polo and plain khakis (pressed and neat) with closed-toe shoes. Even if it's a sneaker, I'd rather see that than flip-flops and toes during an interview. In my experience, the guys always did a better job of dressing for the interview than the girls.

That's because a dress shirt and khaki pants are pretty standard fare in any Walmart or Target or Kmart. That can't be said for the juniors department in any of these same stores. You can only find tacky, trendy short-short crap I wouldn't use for rags. We had to invest some $$$ and travel far to a more upscale department store to get appropriate skirts, blouses, and shoes for my daughters.