HOORAY! You just landed an internship in your industry. Congrats! Now it’s time to dress the part. It's important to know how early in your career if you want to leave great impressions. Want to be taken seriously and treated with respect? Dress like it. Lucky for you we gathered tips on how to dress for 3 major industries whether you’ll be starting an internship in science, the corporate world, or in the creative field.
Dressing for an Internship in Sciences.
In all industries, it's important to take in consideration the environment in which you’ll be working. In science, you may be working in research, a lab or medical office. You’ll want to dress comfortably. If you're going to be working in a lab, it'll most likely be required to wear closed toe shoes. If you’re mostly working on your feet, stick to flat shoes like loafers, oxfords, or nice sneakers. Stay away from high heels. If you're dealing with chemicals stay away from wearing anything too expensive or fancy.
To the left is a look with flat shoes. Swap out glasses for goggles and the cardigan for a lab coat if needed.
Dressing for an Internship in the Professional World.
The professional world refers to industries such as business, finance, and tend to be more corporate. This usually means a more traditional work dress code. Some essential pieces include dress pants, button ups, blouses and blazers. If you plan to work in the professional world after graduation, we recommend investing in at least one suit. Suits can be very expensive so an alternative would be to at least buy a black blazer that can be paired with many different dress pants. You can also wear work dresses and skirts as long as they are a couple inches above the knee or longer. Another thing to pay attention to is the fabric quality.
You want skirts and pants in sturdier fabrics that don’t look cheap. Stay away from busy prints and excessive jewelry. You can get away with some printed pants and skirts as long as the prints are subtle.
Dressing for an Internship in the Creative Field.
You're allowed more freedom when it comes to dressing for an internship as a creative, so have fun with it! Show off your creativity in the way you dress. It's still a good idea to own dress pants and blazers in this industry but go for less traditional styles because you want to look more trendy and stylish in this field. Less traditional pant styles include cropped cigarette pants, high waisted pants with a belted tie, or pants in brighter colors. Pops of color are more acceptable in the creative field. But don’t go overboard. In a work setting, you want to look put together but not over the top, unless over the top is on brand with the company you work for. If you do a pop of color, make sure the rest of your outfit is subtle. Pair the pop of color with neutrals, classic prints like stripes, or keep the rest of the outfit black and white.
Final Thoughts.
Things to keep in mind when dressing for internships across all industries is to keep it classy, avoid showing too much skin and make sure your clothes fit properly. Put the same amount of effort in your wardrobe as you would in performing your job. Your wardrobe should reflect your goals. Now that you know what to wear depending on your industry you should feel more confident and ready to put your skills and knowledge to use and rock your internships. You can always get a second opinion using the Style Squad app (Available on the App Store) simply by posting photos of your outfit. You can also tweet us @stylesquadapp to ask us any style questions you have using the hashtag #askstylesquad.
Thank you Jolene Taracatac, CEO Style Squad App for this article. You can reach Jolene at jolene@stylesquadapp.com and be sure to sign up for StyleSquadApp.
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