It sounds like the most absurd question really, doesn't it? That one specific tie will show the world that you are indeed the recruitment candidate that they not only want but need? That by wearing a specific piece of silk (for no one would believe that it could be of any other material) around your neck that your client director at Talisman will simply be able to waltz you into the job of your dreams?



The strange thing is though, while there isn't actually a power tie, one that works in all places and circumstances, it is a symptom of something else that you really do want to pay attention to in the recruitment process. Look back to any piece of film or TV from past decades: men have worn very thin ties, hugely wide ones (kipper ties), in the 40s hand painted silk was all the rage, in the 50s Liberty paisley prints. For some reason in the US in the 80s a lemon yellow with red dots one was considered the power tie. Also, think how the knots used have changed, from single windsors to double and back again and so on.

What we're talking about here is fashion and while we might think that's something to do with hemlines it is a great deal more important than that. For the different tribes (and if you don't believe that companies mimic tribes in many ways then you're making something of an error) that exist mark themselves out by the way in which they each have their own distinctive fashions.

You do not, for example, wear a brown suit or brown shoes when in The City. That simply marks you out as someone who is not part of the City tribe (which itself is hugely divided into different sub-groups). However, a land director for a regional house builder who habitually wore silk waistcoats would be (if with sufficient panache, perhaps a 'character') thought of as outside that tribe.

Another way of thinking about it is like manners. It doesn't matter whether you call it a napkin or a serviette, not in any real sense. But the use of one or the other word marks you out in English society as coming from one place or another.

It's very much the same with ties (although they are really just an example, it's the whole clothes, glasses, briefcase and car collection which makes the point) and recruitment. They are a symbol, not of power, but of membership, for if you wear similar items of clothing to those you wish to work with, they will think ' Aha! See, he's one of us!'

In terms of what you might do about this it's worth talking with your recruitment consultant or client director at Talisman to get an idea for what your target company actually does tend to wear. The power tie is the one like theirs, the one that puts them at ease with you.