Hello, everyone.
I've recently been offered a new job that will take me away from 10+ years of engineering work in hard hats, steel-toed boots, and standard uniforms to more of an engineering role within an office environment, corporate culture, with some opportunities for interactions with clients in various settings: government, utilities, plant floors, trade shows, etc.
I'm simply not used to dressing up. I don't even know where to begin. Well..., I did find this site a couple of days ago, and I've been reading up as much as possible. But I still have some questions, as my head is spinning.
I threw out all of my old clothes that no longer fit (started running a year ago, lost 30 pounds), which left me almost nothing. As I build my closet back up, I'm at a loss on quantities. What would be a good starting point, with respect to number of:
* dress shirts
* ties
* dress shoes
* polos
* suits
* undershirts
* socks
* belts
What I'm getting at is, I don't want to look like I'm wearing the same thing every day, and I know that building this closet back up will take some time. However, I need a base from which to start, and I'll just add to it with one or two items per month.
I bought one new suit for the interview, so I have... one charcoal suit. I bought five to six dress shirts (one white, several shades of blue, one grey) at Banana Republic (boy, do I wish I'd found this site first), so I have -- wait for it -- five to six dress shirts. Three (nice, work-appropriate) polos, five undershirts (white, crew cut), and two black leather belts, not Karate. Oh yes, one pair of black shoes, and just ordered a pair of brown penny loafers that were recently reviewed on this site.
I mean, really.
As far as what I was able to see on my tour of the new job -- the upper management wore suits. Not sure about my peers, although one of my future managers said something that led me to believe that some engineers wear tee shirts and jeans; he hates tee shirts and jeans; so I decided to burn all of my tee shirts and jeans. He mentioned golf shirts, and shirt and tie. So I gather suits would likely be reserved for client meetings and trade shows, rather than an everyday thing.
I'm also a grad student by night, so I'd love to have something that looks good from work to campus. So I'm more attracted to dressing up than down.
Oh yeah, finally, dumb question, but: chest hair -- what do you do on a casual day -- hide that stuff at all costs? One button undone?
Any advice is appreciated, and if you live in the NOVA area, howdy.
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