Interviewing? What to Wear?

It’s true that a lot of companies now have a more casual dress code. Does the same code apply when interviewing with these companies? While it’s no longer necessary to suit up for a job interview, appearance is still as important as ever before. Make a great first impression by avoiding these fashion faux pas.

1. Don’t wear hot pink shoes with a matching bag! Keep colors conservative and you will send a message that you are no nonsense.
2. Don’t show too much skin! Never go with bare legs. If you can’t handle wearing stockings for a day, then pants are the obvious choice! It’s no longer true that a woman should always wear skirts to an interview. Also, avoid open toed shoes and skirts that are too short. You want to be taken seriously.
3. Don’t wear your favorite leopard headband or plastic neon bangle bracelets! The attention should be focused on you and your potential. It’s not a good idea to wear distracting pieces.
4. Don’t ever wear jeans! Even if you know denim is acceptable at the company where you are interviewing. Think of what you would wear on any given day to work, and then dress a step up. A little extra effort goes a long way.
5. Don’t chew gum! That kind of rudeness will ruin even the most perfect interview outfit.

Something like this sheath dress from metrostyle is perfect!

Now, get on out there, and good luck!

By Sarah

Employee Interview: Brenda, copywriter

1. Who are you and what is your official job title?
Brenda Burger, metrostyle copywriter

2. Briefly describe what you do on a daily basis...
I write all the copy for all the catalogs, emails, web pages, magazine ads and direct mail pieces produced by metrostyle. If it has words on it...I probably had something to do with it!

3. What's your favorite part of your job?
Writing about clothing! In the past, I've held jobs writing about home decor and direct sales. Writing about women's clothing is just so much more fun.

4. Least favorite?
Proofreading legal documents. Yuck.

5. What aspect of your job most directly affects our customers?
Customers see my efforts every day in the catalog and on metrostyle.com...from headlines to individual item descriptions! Hope you like them :)

6. Do you shop on metrostyle.com?
Oh yes. One of the hazards of writing about fashion is that I want at least a dozen things from each new collection. My most recent purchase included a boarder print tunic and cargo pants. I've also got my eye on this adorable tiered knit dress from the upcoming Summer Collection.

7. Just one more...what's your favorite food?
Chocolate. More specifically, my mother-in-law's chocolate chip cookies. I'm not sure what she puts in them - fairy dust, maybe? - but they are incredibly addictive.


Interview by, Jon.

Employee Interview: Jon, Web Designer

1. Who are you and what is your official job title?
My name is Jon and I'm the lead web designer for metrostyle.com

2. Briefly describe what you do on a daily basis...
On any given day you can find me doing anything from designing & refreshing content that appears on the homepage/fashion/petite & tall/new&now/category pages to creating marketing emails to making banners that appear on our many affiliate sites.

3. What's your favorite part of your job?
We're currently in the middle of redesigning metrostyle.com and I'm very much enjoying the process. There's a lot of things I don't like about our current site so being able to think about how to change the shopping experience to best suit our customers is a welcome challenge.

4. Least favorite?
Designing banners. They're such small spaces to design within and the ultra-teeny file sizes we need to have them compressed to artifacts the imagery pretty bad.

5. What aspect of your job most directly affects our customers?
The work I do is the first thing you see when you come to the site or when you open one of our emails. I take pride in the designs I do and hope you, the metrostyle customer, enjoys them.

6. Do you shop on metrostyle.com?
No as a 20-something male metrostyle's clothing just isn't my flavor of fashion. :)

7. Just one more...what's your favorite food?
Fresh homemade guacamole can't be beat. Here's the easy and delicious recipe:

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocados (you can tell if they're ripe by if the avocado 'gives' a little when you press it firmly with your thumb)
3 table spoons of finely diced red onion
3 table spoons of spicy green salsa (my favorite brand is Mrs. Renfro's)
a dash of cumin
a generous pinch of kosher salt
a few turns of ground black pepper
juice from half a lime

Directions:
Cut open the avocados, discard the pit and spoon out the contents from the skin into a bowl (You can throw away the skin). Spoon the green salsa onto the avocados and mash everything together with a fork until it becomes a uniform, soft consistency (it'll be like a thick gravy). Stir in the onion, cumin and salt & pepper – mixing well. Stir in the lime juice and serve with chips. That's it!

Interview by me!, Jon. :)

Employee Interview: Jeffrey

1. Who are you and what is your official job title?
Hi my name is Jeffrey. I have two degrees, Advertising, art and design and a digital media one as well. My job title is Image processor for both Chadwicks and Metrostyle.

2. Briefly describe what you do on a daily basis...
I process, crop and correct images that are uploaded onto the website. I do colorization of product so that our customer can see the variety of colors on a given item. I also work with linking the product from our on-line catalogs and when the opportunity comes, I work on an assortment of projects such as video production and print

3. What's your favorite part of your job?
I enjoy working with and in the web department. Very creative environment. There is a satisfaction knowing that the majority of images on the website are a result of the image processors job.

4. Least favorite?
Sometimes it gets very repetitious and it can be at times not very creative. Deadlines can be a challenge at times, as well.

5. What aspect of your job most directly affects our customers?
Cropping the images and swatches are clean and clear to ensure the customer is seeing the outfit in the most accurate way.

6. Do you shop on metrostyle.com?
I do not shop Metrostyle

7. Just one more...what's your favorite food?
I love pineapple, grapefruit, and French toast.

Interview by Jon

metrostyle featured on TV!

If you tune in to New England Cable News (NECN), you may have seen metrostyle’s CEO, Chas Hepler, featured in their weekly CEO Corner segment.

In this segment, our fearless leader talked about what sets metrostyle and our sister company, Chadwick’s, apart in this economy. The answer (of course) was a dedication to bringing customers high style at low prices!

Chas also touched on fashion trends for the coming year while several metrostyle images flashed on the screen…including our metrostyle bloggers’ top pick for the new Spring Catalog cover!

If you haven’t seen it…check it out:

Employee Interview: Elizabeth

1. Who are you and what is your official job title?
Elizabeth, Assistant Catalog Developer

2. Briefly describe what you do on a daily basis...
Everyday is different. I work as a liaison in a sense between the product, the merchants, and creative so no day or task is ever the same.

3. What's your favorite part of your job?
Seeing the finished product. To watch ideas change from a worksheet to a catalog is an amazing process.

4. Least favorite?
On some days I don't get to eat lunch because I am too busy and cant stop, even for a minute!!

5. What aspect of your job most directly affects our customers?
What the customer sees in the catalog would probably be something I occasionally affect. My opinion on a shot or a layout can sometimes change what the customer will see in print.

6. Do you shop on metrostyle.com?
Yes, sometimes.

7. Just one more...what's your favorite food?
My homemade tacos, and anything spicy!!!!

Interview by Jon

Employee Interview: Stephanie

1. Who are you and what is your official job title?
Stephanie - Copy Associate

2. Briefly describe what you do on a daily basis...
Editing is a big part--both catalog and web. I write the clothing copy for catalog and web (not headlines in catalog, just clothing stuff). I write a lot of what you see on the web and some emails. Chances are if you spot corny puns or web headlines based on songs... I probably wrote it.

3. What's your favorite part of your job?
Writing for the web allows me to share my attempts at humor. Also, flashing shiny objects at the copywriter (it makes her smile).

4. Least favorite?
Flowing (copy and pasting) what I write into the catalog.

5. What aspect of your job most directly affects our customers?
I'm involved with almost everything you read, either editing or writing it.

6. Do you shop on metrostyle.com?
And not take advantage of my employee discount? Of course.

7. Just one more...what's your favorite food?
Oh you should know that I don't have favorites. Sushi is up there though and not quasi-sushi (a.k.a. California rolls). Yeah I even eat eel. Sounds yummy huh?

Interview by Jon

Employee Interview: Chantelle

1. Who are you and what is your official job title?
chantelle - assistant art director

2. Briefly describe what you do on a daily basis...
build layouts, design spreads & covers, edit images, choose shots for the web, create concepts... whatever needs to be done!

3. What's your favorite part of your job?
designing things that our customers will see and experience.

4. Least favorite?
when there's not enough time in the day to get everything done.

5. What aspect of your job most directly affects our customers?
customers shop from the catalog & web pages that i've helped design

6. Do you shop on metrostyle.com?
sometimes

7. Just one more...what's your favorite food?
hard to pick just one! Avocado eggrolls from The Cheesecake Factory, sweet potato quesadillas, eggplant parmesan...

By Jon

addition due to comment request, here's a couple of projects chantelle has worked on...
designed the promotions:

concepted the holiday shop emails:

Employee Interview: Ed from Image Processing

1. Who are you and what is your official job title?
My name is Ed and I'm a Digital Image Processor here at Boston Apparel Group.

2. Briefly describe what you do on a daily basis...
I am responsible for digitally editing, adjusting and uploading online catalog imagery and coordinating basic website functions in accordance with the Web Design department. More recently, I have become the project leader of item colorization for the web, where I create colored samples that can be conveniently
viewed by customers online. Also, I occasionally assist the other designers with various creative and technical tasks.

3. What's your favorite part of your job?
It's been great to work with the latest equipment and design software on projects that require utilizing problem-solving skills and presenting new ideas- both of which are things that I enjoy.

4. Least favorite?
Often times, the high volume of work keeps me constantly busy and can pile up with multiple projects coming in at the same time- it can be quite draining at the end of the day.

5. What aspect of your job most directly affects our customers?
The actual image processing and uploading part would probably be the most important, because without my role of prepping and sizing the images to go up on our site, our customers wouldn't be able to see what they were purchasing!

6. Do you shop on metrostyle.com?
I don't, as a 23-year old male isn't quite their target customer!

7. Just one more...what's your favorite food?
Good question! Probably a toss-up between Spaghetti & Meatballs and Boiled Lobster...

Interview by Jon