In the past couple of years, women have realised that as the job market has become more competitive with redundant people competing for every job, the way they look at interview is vital to the first impression they make. It’s also true that women are beginning to understand that when there are many similarly trained and qualified competitors for every promotion within a company, appearance might make the difference between promotion or staying put.

If you’re going for an interview with a new employer, see what the company literature and website can tell you about the way people dress within the company. You might see that the technical people wear T-shirts and jeans, but the sales staff are more formally dressed – this helps you to determine what you should wear.

When impressing a new employer, always dress up rather than down, if the company standard seems to be jeans and a shirt, wear a fitted women’s shirt but with smarter black trousers to show your respect for those who are interviewing you. Always try to keep to classic colours for an interview – a plain white shirt looks smart and works in all situations, whereas yellow or green or other bright shades suggest you’re not taking the situation seriously.

Once you’re in the job, remember that you can wear many clothes over and over again without looking as if you have a restricted wardrobe – the key is to accessorise cleverly to make it look as if you have an endless choice of garments. Pick simple clothing such as classic long-sleeved T-shirts in neutral colours and team them with different skirts and trousers to offer an endless range of looks.

For example, a plain black T-shirt can be worn with a cashmere cardigan, skirt and boots one day, a casually knotted scarf and trousers on another, and under a zip-up hoodie with jeans for dress-down Friday.