A Public Service Announcement: Please Wear Deodorant

This is being reblogged from 2013 because, well, it’s time.

We had a post a long time ago touching on American cultural issues and some tips for international applicants who are applying to bschool in the States.

We want to add one quick thought to all that today. Especially because summer has arrived in many parts of the U.S.

This is a simple request, and it’s not advice you’re likely to hear (even if you really need it!) because it’s a rather sensitive thing.

The advice is: Please wear deodorant.

This goes out to all nationalities, men and women alike. It’s especially important in a high-stakes situation, like when you’re going for an interview.

We get nervous in interviews. We tend to get sweaty. The repercussions of that can be unpleasant for those around you, and you may not even know it.

Same story for working in an office, on teams, in all these modern-day business environments. You don’t want to subject yourself too strongly to those around you.

And on the flipside of it:

Please do not wear cologne. Or perfume. Or any other strong scent, including hair gels, hand creams or hairsprays. In EssaySnark’s opinion, smelly stuff does not belong in a business setting.

The issue in both of these cases is that we don’t know what we smell like. We are we. (Or more precisely, you are you.) You’re around you all day. You don’t have a good sense for how you’re, uh, coming off on other people.

It’s very common that people who wear cologne get de-sensitized to it, and over time they begin applying more and more of the stuff, since they no longer can smell it on themselves.

Yet everyone else can smell it… for a full hour after they leave the room. They trail clouds of sweet-smelling stench behind them. Lord forfend you get caught it an elevator with them.

Both men and women can be guilty of this.

And on the deodorant thing? Even if you (hopefully!) shower every day, you still may start to ripen around the edges as the day goes on. A quick swipe of deodorant as you’re getting dressed, and voila! No problems.

The PSA for deodorant is made here publicly on the blahg in case there’s anyone out there reading it who was simply unaware of the situation. It’s not an in-person conversation that anyone ever wants to have. In fact, we’ve known managers who’ve simply left a stick of deodorant on the person’s desk, hoping they’d get the message, since it’s such an uncomfortable subject to have to broach.

Today’s advice goes for your MBA interview, and every other interview, and every other business interaction and business meeting and day at the office (or in the classroom) that you will have from this day forward.

You want to be remembered at your interview — for all the right reasons. Heeding today’s advice can help you not be remembered for the wrong ones.

And don’t feel bad. This is an age-old problem. With a h/t to the Washington Post :

“You are being hurt by an ugly rumor which asserts that beneath your armpits dwells a ferocious goat. … So either get rid of this painful affront to the nostrils or cease to wonder why the ladies flee.”

— Gaius Valerius Catullus (87–54 BC)

And hey! That WaPo article is saying that men can come across more manly with deodorant! Who knew! EssaySnark solves all your problems today.