To Thine Own Self Be True…Or Not… That is the Question
How authentic can I be? This is an important question every law school student faces when preparing for a law firm interview. It’s a particularly important question for law students of color as they head into interview at law firms where the diversity agenda is still very much a work in progress.
The Authenticity Trap is how Sylvia Anne Hewlitt describes this predicament in a recent blog post published by the Harvard Business Review. (You can read the full blog post here.) While many employers pay lip service to encouraging their employees be “true to themselves”, the fact remains that very often there are unwritten workplace rules about appearance, speech and behavior that constrain the range of acceptable behavior in most corporate environments. While it can be difficult to achieve at your full potential when you don’t feel comfortable being yourself, at the same time Hewlitt points out that by fully expressing your authentic self you may very well be jeopardizing your opportunity for promotion.
Diverse law students from across the country face this very same quandary in regards to both interviewing and summer clerkships. I hear this all the time from the students who ask me: “What is wrong with 
me? I get the call back or the initial interview but I cannot seem to land the job.” “Is my name too ethnic, does it matter that I have an accent?” “How authentic can I be and still be hired?” All these are both legitimate and important questions although of course, as legal professionals we understand the crucial difference between what can and cannot be said or considered in making employment decisions. But what lies in between and what remains unsaid may often be closer to truth about the way many hiring decisions actually get made!
How authentic can you be? Honestly, that depends! It depends both on what you say and where you are. Context is usually all-important, so I suggest you consider the following:
1) What part of the country you are interviewing in? For example, on the East Coast there is usually a greater level of candor in what people do and say, so being more forceful, ethnic looking and real might play better there than in the Midwest or the South.
2) What size organization are you interviewing with? If you are interviewing with a large firm with a specialty in Finance and/or Banking they are probably more on the conservative side of both fashion and conversation. However, if you are interviewing with a public interest employer who serves a broader cross-section of the community, then being your authentic self may help (or not!).
3) How did you get the interview? If a friend of a friend of a friend got you the interview, then chances are you may not be as familiar with whoever is interviewing you, which means a more formal style might be your best approach. However, if you got the interview because of your mentor or sponsor and they have already talked you up in advance, then being your authentic self is less of a risk! Most often, of course, you’ll likely end up somewhere in the middle. 
Now do not get me wrong. I would hope that you can be your authentic self wherever you interview or get hired. But let’s be real! The law is a very conservative profession where erring on the side of conservative and formal rarely gets you in trouble. And there are things that you cannot change no matter how “polished” you get so you need to own that. What is a universal marker of successful people is confidence. No matter where you are and who you interview with — being confident, well researched and knowing yourself will go a very long way! And yes that means being authentic.