“Dress for the job you want, not the one you have.” This is advice I once heard years ago. Of course I’m not sure what you do if the job you want is the one you want.

Back around 1999 I mentioned to my dad what I was wearing to work. I think I mentioned something about cargo pants and hiking shoes. He admonished me that perhaps I should dress more appropriately for the office and see what the COO and CFO were wearing as an example.  I replied, “Dad, they wear shorts and sandals without socks to the office. I actually dress up more than the COO and CFO do!”  It took me awhile to convince him that in the new dot-com era, not everyone was wearing a shirt and tie to the office.

This all came to me yesterday afternoon as I was deciding what to wear to the Capital Area SQL Server User Group meeting. Since I’m generally the host, I do want to project a professional, but relaxed atmosphere. So, my usual fallback is khakis. But, I was also the speaker so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to make sure I dressed even a bit more appropriately. Fortunately, having been to a number of SQL Saturdays, I had more than enough choices. I ended up with my SQL Saturday Albany 2016 shirt. But as it is starting to be cool here, I figured tossing a top over that would work, and funny enough, I had my Chicago SQL Saturday 2017 top to toss on over it. I’m nothing if not a shill for SQL Saturday!

My kids will claim I have a certain style when it comes to what I wear and they’re right. And while it may seem I often don’t give much thought to what I wear, the truth is, my choice of clothing, especially t-shirts, is often far more deliberate than it may appear.  I just don’t let on often to that fact.

And the truth is, between t-shirts from SQL Saturday and from National Cave Rescue Commission trainings, I probably have close to a month’s worth of shirts if need be.

Makes me wonder, do I volunteer because I like to give back to my community, or because I need the t-shirts? Hmm.