Job interview fashions

Hi girls

Hope this is the right place for this.

At 8-9 months pregnant (so some time in Jan - midwinter for me) I'm going to have a job interview to see if my current employer will still employ me - they're sacking about half of us. Whilst I don't imagine for one moment I'll get a job, I need some clothes ideas.

I was thinking my black hipster trousers (which are a big snug now, but still fit) and a stretchy dress over the top - most of my long tops ride up too high now (I'm 180cm tall) and my jumpers aren't too much better. Will that look OK or just daft in January? I'll also be wearing my exceedingly comfortable zip-up 4" heel ankle boots (still wearing them now). I don't want to buy a new outfit for this, but any ideas what I could do to winter the outfit up? Without making me look about ready to have a baby (as I figure I'll have a better chance at keeping my job if I look less pregnant... please don't disillusion me and say that isn't going to happen, I'll realise that on the day I think!).

Maybe I could wear black trousers, a smart black lycra top and tie a pashmina around my waist - or would that look even worse? I can always wear a smart jacket, unbuttoned, over the top.

Ryn, I had a job interview at seven months and I know how hard it is to find stuff to wear. I know I struggled for a while. I ended up wearing a maternity dress with a jacket unbuttoned over the top.

I have to say the all black option with the pashmina sounds good. I'd wrap the pash around my shoulders though. It will look very flattering.

Good luck.

I think they all sound great, I really like the dress idea and the all black idea too.

Mel is bias towards pashminas, cos they look nice on her - I think I remember her wearing one at a certain BB event ;)

I am sure they look fab on you too Ryn.

Do they have anti-discrimination legislation in the UK that prevents them from not employing you because you are pregnant? i.e. would they have to give a different reason?

If so, and you have a good performance history I would use my performance appraisals as back up, regardless of whether you still want the job later or not (are you still moving to Yorkshire?)...

They can't sack me because I'm pregnant, but they can look at my belly and mark my answers down, IYSWIM - so if I answered the question the same as the person before, they don't record my answer, they just mark her a 5 and me a 2 for the same thing, that way it looks like I stuffed up the interview or aren't that good at my job. Of course, if one person in the panel is not biased I can show that people had widely differing scores and it was probably due to pregnancy, especially as I'll get a good reference from my boss (but they're not using references... how stupid!). I've never actually had an appraisal; they tend to assume that if I'm up to date and no-one has complained about me then I'm doing my job well.

I'm thinking I'll need something over my waist to cover the bump - I don't want to go in with flesh bared to the world! So may wear a black dress over my trousers (the joys of stopping growing at 14-15 and doing a gothy phase as a teen!) and my mint green pashmina.

As for Yorkshire, that's at least another 3 years off. It's so hard to find the jobs up there! I'm kind of happy about that as I'd prefer to be in my own home than in someone else's, and I don't have to worry about putting stuff into storage.

Hey Ryn, I'm a huge fan of black for playing down the bump/s. Have you got those belly bands over there? I have a few and I love them. They are just a band of stretchy fabric that covers your belly in case your top rides up or your pants hang too low. Though the dress over the top could look really trendy... I like the sound of the green with the black.

I think the all black option sounds good. They say black is "slimming" and I know your a slim person anyway, but I'd personally not want to look 8-9months pregnant at a job interview, lol. The dress over pants sounds good.
good luck!

This is dreadful - I was sent a pregnancy magazine yesterday (don't know why or from whom, well other than the publisher that is) and looked at all the fashions to see what was bump-minimising! Not sure that's what you're meant to look for, but some of the stuff I bought a few years ago in a sale is very fashionable for pregnancy now, so huzzah for that!