WorkWise BlogTip: Rolling with the punches

Laurence Shatkin (shatkin.com) was headed on the train for an interview for a high-profile job in New York City. He felt the part, donned in a conservative gray suit. However, he disembarked from the train at Penn Station and headed for the men's room, where his zipper broke. The safety pin he bought didn't solve the problem.

"I arrived at the interview thinking I'd look absent-minded at best or like a pervert at worst," Shatkin recalls. "I went into the office holding a notepad over my middle." His interviewer proved very casually-dressed in a sweatshirt for his son's hockey game immediately after the interview. He apologized for his appearance.

"This luckily provided the perfect (opportunity) for me to explain my own deviance from standard business dress," he comments. The fact that the interviewer was a man was irrelevant. His remark about inappropriate dress made it possible to disarm the situation. If a woman interviewer had apologized for her casual dress, he'd have used the same tactic. If both had been casually dressed but neither had apologized, "I'd have kept my notepad positioned over my lap," he adds.

Did he get hired? After all of that, the company decided not to create the job.

Dr. Mildred L. Culp welcomes your questions at culp@workwise.net. Copyright 2009 Passage Media.