Banker Jeans

Fresh out of college I was desperate for a job where I could use my degree in business but I was too nervous to follow my own dreams and open my own business. After a few weeks of trying to find a job I broke down, cut my hair, put on my only collared shirt and went to an interview with a local bank. The interview went well. They could see the desire to get to work in my eyes. So the interviewer said, “Can you come back tomorrow to fill out some paperwork.” I hesitated then said, “Sure”.

I walked out of the bank, hopped into my car and drove straight to J.C Penny’s to buy another collared shirt.

The next day I filled out all of my paperwork and was told I could start on Monday. I said “Thank you”, walked out the door and drove straight to J.C. Penny to buy enough shirts to get me through the first week.

It wasn’t until many years later that i read Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden and read the quote “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes”, I now know exactly what he meant.

Over the next seven years my closet has become full of these ‘nice’ clothes. I have tons of short sleeve and long sleeve dress shirts, dress pants, a suit coat, and a handful of ties. I can’t picture myself wearing any of it. It just isn’t me, but somehow I’ve been wearing these clothes for years five days a week with a smile on my face. I might as well of had a wig and a clown nose because for me this costume was such an odd requirement for what I was required to do.

Many banks allow their employees to dress down on Fridays and wear jeans. As a 33 year old Vice President this is actually quite a dilemma. The jeans that I would wear on a Saturday night are faded and baggy. They don’t scream professional. I do have a pair of jeans that my wife makes fun of. She calls them my ’banker jeans’. She teases me when I wear them and I know she is right. They just aren’t me. They are part of the act.

Thoreau makes a great point. If you have to disguise who you really are to take part in an activity or a job, you are not going to be happy. Life is short. We need to enjoy it and to be who each one of us is as an individual. Follow your dreams and let your freak flag fly.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Living in the Corporate World, The Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.