My first internship was at a coal fired powerplant in Omaha. The job was menial in some respects, but it gave me an opportunity to walk up and down the entire plant frequently, learn about all the equipment and processes in a real world setting, and ask a lot of qestions. In retrospect, it set me up really well for future opportunities.

The interview was at the powerplant itself and I wasn’t quite sure what to wear since I figured powerplants are dirty and it would be a fairly casual environment. I was right on both counts but decided to just wear my suit anyway (which I know now didn’t fit properly at all, but that’s another story). I wasn’t quite sure how the interview went at the time but I must have said something right since I got the job.

Near the very end of the internship my manager mentioned to me that the deciding factor in offering me the job was that I wore a suit to the interview. Apparently, there was one other candidate that I was neck and neck with. My boss couldn’t find a differentiating factor between us two and eventually settled on me simply because I wore a suit and the other guy did not.

I sometimes try to convince myself that how I dress doesn’t really matter these days, but that admission by my manager taught me that how you present yourself can indeed have an outsized influence on future opportunities.