For far too long, my career was in what I like to refer to as sales because I'm sort of embarrassed about it. The reality was that I worked at the mall, peddling shoes to innocent buyers while wearing a horrid suit of polyester. I worked there for two years, a time which left me with nothing but disdain for that suit and the polyester it was made of. I gladly left that job to move here, and headed in a new direction, one that took me away from the mall into an office.

Once my career started to take off, one of my most important factors in looking for work was the dress code. I was so eager to work somewhere that I could wear shorts or jeans that I tended to overlook other factors, like was I qualified to do the job, did I like the people I'd be working with, and was the work interesting. This criteria landed me in a job that I wasn't qualified for, so I didn't last long.

At that point I started to reevaluate my priorities, but I couldn't let go of the need to wear jeans. It seems that the polyester had affected me in such a way that I couldn't stand the thought of having a dress code dictated to me anymore. The dress code as a major factor in the contracts I would accept. I happily wore shorts and t-shirts most of the time, accompanied by my always casual collection of tennis shoes, a remnant of those retail days. As a contractor, I didn't really look to move up the food chain, but merely to stay in it. So I kept my head down and didn't pay too much attention to my wardrobe.

That is, until this year.

I landed a job at a small company, the type of company I'd been hoping to find all along. It's a place where I'm no longer an outsider but a vital part of the team. All of a sudden, I started to care about what I was doing with my career and the way my co-workers treated me. I found myself not only sitting in meetings but speaking in them. Not only that, I knew what I was talking about.

I knew that I had entered a new phase in my working life when I was asked to help re-write my company's web site when we changed our name. I could hardly believe my luck, and set to the daunting task of re-writing. When I went to meetings with the other writers, a team which included the Director of Public Relations, I started to feel underdressed. Surrounded by suits and carefully coordinated outfits, I knew it was time for a change, especially when a friend told me that I looked like a high school kid. I wanted to be taken seriously the minute someone met me, not after I'd had to prove myself because of my outfit. I'd like to believe that the world doesn't work that way, but I know it does, so it became a matter of doing what was necessary to get the respect I wanted.

It hasn't been too difficult to adjust to my new wardrobe because this time I finally care about what goes on at work. As a contractor, it was hard for me to care about the companies I worked at, I knew I was expendable, regardless of how I dressed or the work I did, when my project was over, so was my job. These days, I'm a bona-fide full-time permanent employee and it's a whole new ball game. I want my company to do well, because it's my work that's paying off, not just the company's.

So I wear my sport shirts and jeans, which may seem like only a small step up from my former attire, but lucky for me I work in Silicon Valley, where it's a big step. Big enough, anyway, to get me that level of respect right away. Which is all I had hoped for.