Suit and tie or casual Friday - how should we dress in the workplace?

What you wear can say a lot about you - and even give you that extra boost of confidence you may need for a tough meeting or interview.

Shona McManus, CEO of Osborne Recruitment, spoke to Bobby Kerr about the 'dos', 'don'ts' and 'definitely nots' when it comes to office wear.

"Every business, depending on the sector, will dictate their dress code at work - and also the culture, the environment and the policies of the business that they're working in.

"If you have professional services or banking or financial services industry, typically speaking, they're quite professionally orientated.

"And then you have a number of shared service centres around Dublin that might be smart-casual - which is the chinos, the shirt - all that side of it.

"And then... the more creative side, which could be anything from jeans to shorts to whatever it is somebody wants to wear to work".

File photo | Image: Philip Toscano/PA Wire/PA Images

But if you are very casually dressed in work, what do you wear when you go home?

"Personally speaking, when I go to work every day I like to dress my best - it helps me to be confident.

"However, everybody's different - some people can perform just as well in their jeans, etc - other people like to get that sense of confidence when they put their suit on."

But there is one cardinal rule: Always dress to impress at an interview.

"It's everything from your clothes, to your body language to the energy that you bring to the interview as well: you're wearing them all, really.

"Advice for people going to interview would be first of all find out the culture and the environment - is it a casual workplace?

"Sometimes you could go in in a full suit and it might be the case that the interviewers feel that you're not really aligned to their culture.

But she stresses it is still a formal occasion.

"It's important to stand out obviously, but for all the right reasons".