Vintage "Job Talk" Style. . .

 

A vintage Hart, Schaffner, and Marx jacket with and English-made necktie, featuring Eustace Tilley of The New Yorker magazine fame, on top.

Combined with non-vintage items on the bottom.  But it all works well together.

Another beautifully sunny and cool spring day here with a slight breeze.  Ideal odd sports jacket, khakis, and loafers weather.  

This particular jacket is, to my mind, a perfect Spring-Summer-early September piece.  Colorful, yet it doesn't burn your eyes when you look directly at it.  

That's a joke , son.  I say, that's a joke.  

Anyway, I made the 15-minute trip into campus again this morning for the second of three job talk with lunch events this week.  Normally, I would avoid these.  But the position is for the director of my particular program, and I am now one of the four senior most faculty in it, as hard as that is to fathom, so I feel honor bound to be present and ask probing questions during Q&A.  The candidate today was very strong, and I enjoyed chatting with him over lunch after the fact.

Sartorially, I was the only man present in jacket and tie, or leather shoes as far as I could tell.  Short-sleeved shirts that seem a size or two too small , a hooded sweatshirt, and a zipper warm-up top were the attire of choice for the other half-dozen men in the room (shakes head sadly).

The candidate himself is highly qualified, and I would be quite pleased were he the hiring committee's eventual recommendation to the Dean.  However, someone should let him know, albeit quietly and subtly, that if one is going to wear a white dress shirt, then a white or flesh colored undershirt of some kind beneath might be a good idea.  As would an odd jacket or blazer over top to present a more polished appearance overall.  

Like pugnacious congressman Jim Jordan, however, I am forced to conclude today's job candidate owns one necktie and no such jacket or blazer.  Even in 2024, two or three silk neckties, and the aforementioned jackets (with a couple of pairs of wool dress pants) should be purchased as soon as possible as you near adulthood.  And certainly by the time one graduates from college or university, to say nothing of being well into one's 30s, or possibly nearing 40.   

Remember, our clothes are another part of the messaging necessary to convey our knowledge and expertise to those with whom we interact.  Regardless of sophomoric arguments to the contrary, Saturday morning at-home attire -- that might be more suited to changing the oil in the car, yard work out of doors, or cleaning out the garage -- doesn't really say 'capable professional', does it?

But that's just me.

-- Heinz-Ulrich