Overweight at interview

[Pancakesteve]

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Actually most people I've seen at my interviews wear black. Even if it's for weddings/funerals in the strictest sense, I think it's acceptable to wear to an interview.

A lot of people do wear black to interviews. And a lot of people are wrong. Most of the people who were at my interviews were in the early 20s. What do they know about suits? The Pontiac Grand Am sold hundreds of thousands of models... doesn't make it a good car/choice. 😉
It's a faux-pas, but it's not as blatant as say, going into the interview with your fly unzipped. If possible, avoid black. If you can't afford another suit, go with what you've got. The medical/health-care professions are far less fashion-conscious than say business/law communities. I'm not saying that interviewers are going to mock you for wearing black. I'm just saying that people do it, because they don't know better. (Just like wearing flat-front shoes. BLEH.) Jeans and a t-shirt < black suit < grey/navy/charcoal. That's all. 🙂

And Tinkerbell- I think the black suit rule typically applies more to males, not females. Though I could be wrong.

 

[SHC1984]

You never actually lost a significant amount of weight yourself, have you ? 😕

It actually takes a tremendous amount of effort to watch what you eat - I'm a life time member weight watcher who lost ~ 60 lbs, it's a hellacious amount of work to constantly note EVERYTHING you eat. It literally puts a strain on your lifestyle - since watching what you eat means you may have to drastically alter your shopping habits, your cooking habits and it even may affect your personal relationships.

My friends were not supportive of me when started loosing weight - I couldn't go out with them anymore and watch them eat large portions of fried food, so they stopped hanging out with me alltogether and esentially cut me out of their life. My in-law family was also not supportive, every time I would come in to stay with them for a few days, I would literally have to bring a grocery bag full of food with me, because their kitchen was stuffed with twinkies, candies, chips, nuts, and even all the vegetables were buttered.

Does this sound like easy ?

It's not, it's even harder when you have to log everything you eat that day so you can determine what progress you made and then subsequently get disheatened after you notice that after all that hard work you only lost 1-2 lbs that week.

For me, weight loss was a journey and a life altering experience. Having gone though it, I'm much more acutely aware of how hard it is to actually loose weight, hence I don't ignorantly throw around statements "watching what you eat and 30 minutes of exercise " every day should do the trick. It's been a few years and I haven't gained any weight back - I'm 5'7 and 115-116 now, but it takes constant work on the daily basis to keep my weight down.


If watching what you eat was as easy as you put it, then 60 % of this country wouldn't be overweight, would they ?

Wow I didn't know that about you Chebs! I am glad everything work out well for you though! 😍

 

[Tinkerbell22]

And Tinkerbell- I think the black suit rule typically applies more to males, not females. Though I could be wrong.

Yeah I hated my black pant suit, but luckily I randomly found something in the mall the night before that I loved. It was a very simple pattern, kind of navy blue colored I guess... and it was a skirt suit. I feel much more comfortable in skirts.

 

[Pancakesteve]

Yeah I hated my black pant suit, but luckily I randomly found something in the mall the night before that I loved. It was a very simple pattern, kind of navy blue colored I guess... and it was a skirt suit. I feel much more comfortable in skirts.

I think skirt-suits look better than most pant-suits. 👍

 

[SHC1984]

Just read the entire thread. To the OP, looks matter A LOT, sometimes even more than personality. So please do yourself a favor and lose weight. It will be a hard, but it is so worth it in the long run. I never had a weight problem before, but I did gain 10 pounds my freshman year in college. It took a few months to lose that weight, but it can be done! good luck! 🙂

 

[desmoulins45179]

About black suits- I have a black pinstripe pants suit and I like it. I personally don't like skirt suits. For one reason I have short legs and generally look better with shorter skirts. Since skirt suits obviously are more conservative in length, it doesn't look so as nice as it would on someone with longer legs. (I compared a skirt on a mannequin to myself - went to the knee on the mannequin but low calf on me. It looked kind of weird).
The more important reason is I feel more comfortable in pants when wearing something formal like a suit (I'm not that feminine).

When I looked for suits - there were only two suits that came as separates and I liked the fit. One was a black pinstripe and the other was gray but with an amberish pinstripe. I thought (and my grandmother, who does not like black) thought it looked better on me. So I went with that choice. I also don't think I look so great in navy or gray. Thinking back to my interviews, almost all of the women wore black suits. Since there is nothing like men's wearhouse for women that is dedicated to suits, it's harder to find a good suit. Most women's stores are more directed towards business casual and looking "cute" rather than formal. That's fine for buying things like business casual but sucks when you are trying on a suit.

 

[UES Girl]

Wow I didn't know that about you Chebs! I am glad everything work out well for you though! 😍

Thanks, 🙂, I'm glad I lost the weight too because as sad and as disheartening as it is, looks matter tremendously and people treat me soo much differently now that I'm thin vs how they used to treat me when I was overweight.

I'm almost glad I had issues with my weight before because it made me less ignorant on the entire issue and so much more humble about my appearance. 🙂

 

[SHC1984]

Thanks, 🙂, I'm glad I lost the weight too because as sad and as disheartening as it is, looks matter tremendously and people treat me soo much differently now that I'm thin vs how they used to treat me when I was overweight.

I'm almost glad I had issues with my weight before because it made me less ignorant on the entire issue and so much more humble about my appearance. 🙂

👍

 

[sprinkle0420]

Just read the entire thread. To the OP, looks matter A LOT, sometimes even more than personality. So please do yourself a favor and lose weight. It will be a hard, but it is so worth it in the long run. I never had a weight problem before, but I did gain 10 pounds my freshman year in college. It took a few months to lose that weight, but it can be done! good luck! 🙂

I hoenstly don't believe looks matter alot, come on, this is an interview for pharmacy school, not Hollywood. I think the most important thing is to prove oneself as a well-spoken, intelligent person who can think on their toes so to speak. Besides, weight is not always indicative of good or poor health....i know of quite a few people who are of normal weight, but have high cholesterol, binge drinkers well on their way to cirrhosis, etc.

 

[vinny808]

Studies have shown that obese people who exercise, and maintain good cardiovascular health can be healthier and can even live longer than people of normal weight who do not exercise.

But then again, obesity is a precursor to metabolic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. If you checked the cholesterol levels of most obese/over weight people, I doubt you would find healthy CHL numbers/ other measures of good health. Mostly because of diet/lifestyle.

 

[IceScrewball]

Thanks for the few people who wished me luck in the struggle and shared stories - I didn’t mean to start a fight. I had to follow up on this post, because I had my most important interview this weekend, the one I was worried about that prompted the topic, and two of my three interviewers were overweight. One I would consider slightly overweight, and one was quite definitely obese. So although I do want to lose weight, I doubt it was at all a factor of subconscious prejudice during my interview.

 

[EtohResearcher]

i understand your concerns but seriously??? weight does NOT matter, as long as you look good on paper and show that you have good communication skills, your set. i work with pharmacist who is overweight, diabetic and munches on Doritos all day at work and she got early acceptance. also, my sister worked under an obese pharmacist whose daily highlight was eating a large greasy pizza at work. hypocritical? yes. but we live in a hypocritical world where double standards are a part of everyday life...

 

[lauradiddle]

I'm always bugged by people who are in denial about what size they are. It's not like there's a big sign that displays the size of your jeans (unless you forget to pull that sticker off, which I've totally been guilty of), so stop trying to wear a size 8 when you're really a size 14. Just wear what fits! We're all judgemental, but I think it has more to do with how you take care of yourself than what the number on the scale says. Find yourself a great fitting suit and walk into the room with some confidence, and that's all you need.