Things You Should Know and Possibly Don’t: Polishing Your Shoes

Few things can kill your prospects in an interview like showing up looking like a slob. That's why (hopefully) you're combing your hair carefully, wearing nice (clean, ironed) clothes, shaving. It's also why, on the way to your interview, you'll find yourself constantly checking your reflection like you belong on the cast of Jersey Shore (no link for Jersey Shore, we refuse). It's funny then that for all that preparation, job candidates sometimes miss one glaring problem in their appearance: their shoes (and we apologize to all of the ladies reading, because this is a much less useful post for you). Let's put this in no uncertain terms you need to shine your shoes before you go to a job interview. Unless the interviewer is just dead-set against formality and flat-out tells you not to wear dress shoes (and even then, part of us would be thinking "It's a trap") your shoes need to look nice, and that means that you need to polish them up.

So, how do you do it? It's pretty easy. You'll need:

3 (three) soft cloths. At least one should be cotton
1 (one) thing of shoe polish
2 (two) shoes in need of a-polishin'
1 (one) spray bottle of water
1 (one) sufficient amount of time before your interview (you should be doing this the night before)

Okay, so first: take one cloth, dampen it (it shouldn't be dripping wet) and lightly dust off the shoes.
Next, use the other cloth to polish the shoe. As an important note, you need to keep the polish damp as you apply it. You should be moving in circles a-la Daniel-San in Karate kid (wax-on, wax-off).
Leave the shoe sitting for a few minutes, then use the spray bottle to lightly mist the shoe.
Repeat all of this (except the dusting step) until your shoes have reached a suitable level of shine. After that, buff with another cloth (or use a damp cottonball if you must).
After that, put your shoes in their box and leave them someplace cool and safe