flensr

Caveat up front - Take this with a grain of salt since I'm not a career consultant, and have nothing but my own experience and the advice of my own advisers to go on...

I intentionally wore something other than a white shirt with my suit. In a group of 500 dudes with nearly identical resumes and stories wearing white shirts, I figured it wouldn't hurt to be memorable as that one guy who looked sharp in a shirt with some color. Lets you pick a nicer tie too, if you're not stuck in the navy suit and tie with white shirt getup like everyone else. I think somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of the people at the job fair I attended were NOT wearing a white shirt. Pretty much everyone had a black, charcoal, or navy suit.

Not saying that a white shirt isn't a safe bet, but if your resume is like everyone else's and you're dressed just like everyone else, you're not giving them anything at all to help pick you out of the crowd and remember you. Attitude is important, and looking sharp and confident (without being arrogant) instead of being tense while trying to look like everyone else, can help with a first impression.

If they want to hire someone who looks exactly like everyone else, they've got 10,000 fully qualified candidates already and may not need you. Dress sharp and act confident but respectful, and it doesn't matter what color your shirt is as long as you're making it clear that you take it seriously (ie. don't dress in obviously faddish or outdated styles).

The Yellow Suit thing works only once and its been done, but the underlying concept remains true - you need to stand out just enough to get noticed, but not in a weird way.