Dear Summer Government Interns,
Hooray! Your dad made some calls and you got a job sitting at the front desk answering a Congressman's crazy constituent calls and sorting mail. Congrats! Your labor will be mind numbing, but it'll look good on the resume. You are part of an elite group of Hill staff. Great. However, I think we should talk about how to not just get a job like an adult, but also look like one.
Now, we all know I'm not a big fan of business attire. I'm much happier in flip flops and a cotton sun dress. Maybe a cardigan for that chilly A/C. But you can only wear that at small nonprofits. Even I have submitted to wearing button ups, and Ann Taylor skirts, and having a suit jacket on hand. So, if I can do it, you can too. So I've created a few rules of thumb to help you!
Things you can wear to work: heels of a reasonable height that you can walk in, dress pants, professional skirts, and flowy blouses. I'd also suggest solid colors, or at least non-animal prints.
Things you cannot wear to work: stretchy skirts you wear to go clubbing, anything that shows your bra straps, anything you couldn't wear to my public high school (aka, your skirts must reach your fingertips, and your top straps can't be thinner than 2 fingers), anything from Bebe or Forever 21, because this is what they list under 'career.'
Seriously? Only appropriate if your career is selling weed from the back of your boyfriend's van all summer. Ridiculous. In any case, it's a near miracle more of you don't end up sleeping with Senators or getting lewd texts from Congressional leadership, as from my experience, half the Hill work population and staff is dressed in Saturday night sorostitute attire 8-5pm Monday - Friday. *sigh* These are the future politicians of America people. And we wonder why no one likes politicians.
