What to Wear to a Job Interview (Without Overthinking It)

Lock John — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:59:55 +0000

Job interviews are stressful enough — what makes it worse is not knowing what to wear.

Most advice online sounds like this:
"Dress professionally."
"Wear something appropriate."

But what does that actually mean?

After going through multiple interviews (and overthinking my outfit every time), I realized something:

👉 People don’t need more inspiration — they need clear, practical answers.

So here’s a simple breakdown.

👔 A Simple Interview Outfit Formula

If you don’t want to think too much, follow this:

For Men:

Top: Solid color button-down shirt (white / light blue)
Bottom: Dark chinos or dress pants
Shoes: Clean leather shoes or loafers
Optional: Blazer for more formal roles

For Women:

Top: Blouse or simple knit top (neutral colors)
Bottom: Tailored pants or knee-length skirt
Shoes: Flats or low heels
Optional: Blazer or structured jacket

🧠 Adjust Based on Industry

Not all interviews are the same:

Tech startup → Business casual is usually fine
Finance / law → More formal (blazer recommended)
Creative roles → Slight flexibility, but keep it clean

❌ Common Mistakes

Overdressing (full suit for a casual startup)
Underdressing (t-shirt + sneakers)
Loud colors or distracting patterns

🤔 Still Not Sure?

One thing I found frustrating was how scattered advice is.

So I built a small tool that gives you a complete outfit suggestion based on your situation:

👉 https://www.outfitguide.online/

It’s still very simple (mostly text-based), but I’m exploring whether people actually find this useful.

💬 Curious — how do you decide what to wear for interviews?

Do you follow a rule, or just guess each time?

I Built a Free AI Face Shape Detector (and What I Learned Along the Way)

Lock John — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 15:07:05 +0000

Hey devs 👋

I recently built a small side project called Face Shape Detector — a free web tool that analyzes a face photo and tells you the face shape (oval, round, square, heart, etc.) using AI.

I want to share why I built it, how it works, and a few lessons I learned along the way.

Why I Built This

I noticed that many people struggle with things like:

Choosing the right hairstyle or glasses
Understanding face proportions
Finding objective feedback about their appearance

Most existing tools are either:

Locked behind paywalls
Mobile-only apps
Or overly complicated

So I wanted to build something that is:

Free
No signup
Works instantly in the browser

What the Tool Does

The Face Shape Detector lets users:

Upload a face photo
Get an instant analysis of their face shape
See a simple explanation of the result

No data is stored permanently, and the experience is designed to be as lightweight as possible.

👉 Live demo:
https://www.yourface.online/

How It Works (High Level)

I tried to keep the architecture simple and scalable:

Frontend: Next.js + Tailwind CSS

Backend: API routes for face analysis

AI: Face landmark detection + rule-based classification

Deployment: Vercel

The AI part focuses on extracting facial landmarks (jawline, cheekbones, forehead width), then classifying the face shape based on geometric ratios rather than black-box predictions.

This made the results:

More explainable
Easier to tune
Faster to iterate on

Challenges I Ran Into

A few things were harder than expected:

1. Image Abuse & Bots

Open tools attract spam very quickly. I had to add rate limiting and verification to prevent mass uploads.

2. Perceived Accuracy

Even when the math is correct, users may feel the result is wrong. UX explanations matter as much as the model itself.

3. Speed vs Accuracy

More complex models = slower results. I optimized for fast feedback first, accuracy second.

What I Learned

Simple tools with clear value outperform complex ones
UX clarity matters more than model complexity
SEO + tool-based content is a powerful combo
Shipping fast > waiting for “perfect”

This project also helped me validate whether AI-powered micro tools are worth building as indie projects — and so far, the answer looks like yes.

What’s Next

Possible next steps:

Hairstyle or glasses recommendations
API access for developers
More explainable visual overlays

If you’re interested, feel free to try it and share feedback 👇
https://www.yourface.online/

Forem: Lock John