MinEMorris wrote:Did you guys bring a messenger bag/briefcase on your first day? I looked up old threads and people seemed to say that bringing a bag on the first day will make you look clueless, but I feel really weird about showing up with just a pen in my pocket. If a padfolio is TCR instead, can anyone recommend where to get a decent one? I've only managed to find them at places like staples, and theirs are usually stamped with some obnoxious logo oon the front or have a bunch of middle school looking compartments on the inside.
Also curious, for those of you who have/had business casual offices, did you hve some sort of blazer or suit jacket that you'd throw on on your way to work or when you went out to lunch or something? I lack creative eye and it feels hard to pick out a single color for such a jacket that I can feel safe with regardless of my pants or shirt (maybe grey or navy?). If you did, I'd love to see a picture of the sort of jacket you guys sported.
Thanks guys.
I think that bags are pretty worthless for anything unrelated to protecting a file from weather or carrying your laptop around, neither of which you're particularly likely to do as a SA. Thus, I would suggest that it is totally unnecessary to get a bag, much less drop a few hundred dollars on any of those suggested above. Padfolio if you anticipate taking notes (
here's a cheap example devoid of any obnoxious external logos that's probably available at a local office supply joint); plain folder (manilla or pocket, whatever) if you just need to carry papers.
My standard business casual outfit is a suit with an open-collared striped or textured dress shirt. The jacket I wear when I'm going to/from the office is the suit jacket. Otherwise, the key to doing it without much thinking is to get a blue or gray jacket that doesn't closely match the color of any of your pants (i.e., no midnight navy jacket with black pants, no charcoal/navy jacket with only marginally-lighter charcoal/navy pants, etc.), preferably in a weave that is distinct from any of your pants. That's hard to do unless you have nothing but really light-colored pants, so you'll likely either need multiple jackets, or just not worry about it if your employer's form of "business casual" is casual enough to where you don't need a jacket.
-Pufer
