Creating A Professional Appearance

To Get And Keep A Job

Looking your best and feeling confident are important ingredients for a successful job search – particularly for women entering or re-entering the workforce. The Work Your Image! survey and analysis has more information about women in the workforce and the importance of a professional appearance.

Understanding the importance of presenting a professional appearance, Women Work! The National Network for Women’s Employment and the Personal Care Products Council are partners in a unique program called Work Your Image! The program consists of educational materials that are all designed to help displaced homemakers, single parents, welfare recipients and other women in transition make their best first impression as they compete in today’s job market.

With the support of the Council, Women Work! provides free Work Your Image! Guides and Worksheets to the more than 1,300 programs that are part of the Women Work! network. These local programs provide career counseling, life skills development, support groups, and job training to help women move into and up in the workplace.

Work Your Image! provides basic information with a common-sense approach to creating that positive first impression. It includes information on:

• the most common body signal barriers;

• establishing eye contact;

• make-up application, hair care, skin care and personal hygiene;

• guidance on clothing selection;

• how to get a good night’s sleep;

• a checklist to help prepare for an interview; and

• a checklist to help mothers balance the demands of work and family.

Through its network of job training programs, Women Work! reaches 400,000 women in transition a year. These programs are critical to women’s ability to get the skills and education that will lead to jobs with the wages and benefits they need to support themselves and their families. The goal of Work Your Image! is to help women "create a professional appearance to get and keep a job!"

For more information on the Work Your Image! program and its materials, please contact Women Work! by visiting its website at www.womenwork.org, or e-mail at womenwork@womenwork.org. You can also call 202/467-6346. Women Work! is located at 1625 K Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006.

You can also contact the Council about Work Your Image! at workimage@personalcarecouncil.org.