I am a MN native, I work outside in all she has to throw at us. I have been outside at work for 8 years now. No days off for snow or cold, ever. The worst I have been forced to endure is -45f with a -77f windchill. I also do allot of ice fishing, deer hunting, and snowmobiling.
First of all, I have a few questions for you.
Will you be in and out of the cold (going inside a building or heated vehicle), or will you be out in it all day?
Will you be physically active or doing allot of standing around?
What kind of cold are we talking? Iowa or Saskatoon?
It can be easy to stay warm as long as you don't over do it or make the wrong choices. I also feel that much of the super warm clothing stuff on the market is over hyped gimmick. There is no reason on earth to spend a whole pile of money on work clothes.
If you smoke, you will have cold hands and feet no matter what you do.
Buy lots of chapstick, it's worth twice it's weight in gold when the wind starts blowing. Use it before your lips start to hurt.