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[OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews

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  [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Arnold <arnie@example.com> - 2013-12-02 13:17 -0500
    Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2013-12-02 21:11 +0100
    Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Arne Vajhoej <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-12-02 22:29 -0500
    Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews lipska the kat <"lipskathekat at yahoo dot co dot uk"> - 2013-12-03 08:44 +0000
      Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2013-12-03 09:09 +0000
      Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2013-12-03 21:03 +0000
      Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Arne Vajhoej <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-12-03 21:32 -0500
        Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews lipska the kat <"lipskathekat at yahoo dot co dot uk"> - 2013-12-04 15:49 +0000
    Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews "Qu0ll" <Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com> - 2013-12-03 20:29 +1100
      Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam> - 2013-12-03 08:02 -0800
      Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Rhino <no_offline_contact_please@example.com> - 2013-12-03 17:39 -0500
        Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2013-12-03 23:11 +0000
          Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Rhino <no_offline_contact_please@example.com> - 2013-12-04 12:41 -0500
      Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2013-12-03 23:06 +0000
    Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Kevin McMurtrie <mcmurtrie@pixelmemory.us> - 2013-12-03 21:56 -0800
      Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Arne Vajhoej <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-12-06 09:44 -0500
    Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Jeff Higgins <jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2013-12-04 08:17 -0500
      Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Arne Vajhoej <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-12-06 09:54 -0500
        Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Jeff Higgins <jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2013-12-06 09:58 -0500
          Re: [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2013-12-08 21:37 +0100

#26699 — [OT] Appropriate dress for IT interviews

I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it 
still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is 
business casual very common now?

I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by 
making the wrong choice of clothing.
-- 
Arnie

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#26701

On 02.12.2013 19:17, Arnold wrote:
> I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it
> still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is
> business casual very common now?
>
> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
> making the wrong choice of clothing.

I can only speak for my part of the world: here it's usual to wear 
suits.  But jeans and a jacket might also be OK in some placs.  It 
probably depends on the company where you are applying.  My rule of 
thumb would be: if unsure, rather more formal than less.  But even that 
may be subject to local changes.

Kind regards

	robert


PS: "here" is the largest part of Old Europe(TM). ;-)

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/

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#26706

On 12/2/2013 1:17 PM, Arnold wrote:
> I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it
> still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is
> business casual very common now?
>
> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
> making the wrong choice of clothing.

Look at it this way:

                       they expect business   they expect business casual
you in business              perfect                 no big deal
you in business casual       very bad                 perfect

I think it is obvious what the safe approach is.

Arne

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#26710

On 02/12/13 18:17, Arnold wrote:
> I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it
> still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is
> business casual very common now?
>
> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
> making the wrong choice of clothing.

I never got this whole "what you wear is more important than what you 
do" thing at job interviews.

If my sartorial abilities were more important than my technical 
abilities then I wouldn't want to work for them anyway ...

But I have to agree with Arne (is this a first?). Go safe if you want to 
avoid pissing off the old duffers.



-- 
Lipska the Kat©: Troll hunter, sandbox destroyer,
treacherous feline and farscape dreamer of Aeryn Sun
GNU/Linux user #560883 - http://www.linuxcounter.net

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#26711

lipska the kat" <"lipskathekat at yahoo dot co dot uk wrote:
> On 02/12/13 18:17, Arnold wrote:
> > I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it
> > still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is
> > business casual very common now?
> >
> > I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
> > making the wrong choice of clothing.
>
> I never got this whole "what you wear is more important than what you
> do" thing at job interviews.

Point is: you don't want to distract their attention from what you do.

Ideal: anything that isn't part of your "pitch" should be invisible or at least 
not noticable.

FWIW: I would say that in today's Britain, suits (for men) are the "invisible" 
option for an IT job interview.  In particular the /interviewer/ may well wear 
a suit (that he/she mightn't normally).

Don't know how well that applies outside Britain, nor outside the "normal" 
(i.e. not visual-design-centric) IT world.

    -- chris 

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#26716

On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:44:51 +0000, lipska the kat wrote:

> On 02/12/13 18:17, Arnold wrote:
>> I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it
>> still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is
>> business casual very common now?
>>
>> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
>> making the wrong choice of clothing.
> 
> I never got this whole "what you wear is more important than what you
> do" thing at job interviews.
>
It depends who is doing the initial interview. If the first cut 
interviews are done by HR or city types, i.e. bankers or front office 
bods, then they *will* think what you wear is more important than what 
you know. After all, you can't impress clients if the office is full of 
scruffy oiks, can you? That's just not on, old boy!
   

-- 
martin@   | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org       |

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#26720

On 12/3/2013 3:44 AM, lipska the kat wrote:
> On 02/12/13 18:17, Arnold wrote:
>> I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it
>> still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is
>> business casual very common now?
>>
>> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
>> making the wrong choice of clothing.
>
> I never got this whole "what you wear is more important than what you
> do" thing at job interviews.

In most jobs the attitude towards the job is as important as the 
technical skills.

The suit send out a signal that one consider a job interview a
serious/important thing.

Ignoring the dress code send out a signal that one do not really care
about the job.

Arne

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#26726

On 04/12/13 02:32, Arne Vajhoej wrote:
> On 12/3/2013 3:44 AM, lipska the kat wrote:
>> On 02/12/13 18:17, Arnold wrote:
>>> I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it
>>> still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is
>>> business casual very common now?
>>>
>>> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
>>> making the wrong choice of clothing.
>>
>> I never got this whole "what you wear is more important than what you
>> do" thing at job interviews.
>
> In most jobs the attitude towards the job is as important as the
> technical skills.
>
> The suit send out a signal that one consider a job interview a
> serious/important thing.
>
> Ignoring the dress code send out a signal that one do not really care
> about the job.

God luck to the OP
Let us know how you get on


-- 
Lipska the Kat©: Troll hunter, sandbox destroyer,
treacherous feline and farscape dreamer of Aeryn Sun
GNU/Linux user #560883 - http://www.linuxcounter.net

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#26712

"Arnold"  wrote in message news:l7iiri$uan$1@dont-email.me...

> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by making 
> the wrong choice of clothing.

A few years ago I applied for a Java role at an animation studio.  They told 
me up front to come dressed casually and for some reason I suspected this 
was some kind of trap (you know, see if I actually respected them enough to 
wear a suit).

When I turned up I was shocked to find both interviewers in tee shirts, 
shorts and sandals.  Then I looked around and the entire (extremely 
youthful) workforce was dressed similarly.

Needless to say I felt a bit silly but fortunately I got the job (even 
though I was older than everyone else I could see by a fair margin) :-)

--
And loving it,

-Qu0ll (Rare, not extinct)
_________________________________________________
Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com
[Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me] 

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#26714

On 12/3/2013 1:29 AM, Qu0ll wrote:
>
> A few years ago I applied for a Java role at an animation studio.  They
> told me up front to come dressed casually and for some reason I

This is actually a fair point.  If the company culture is such that a 
suit is unnecessary they'll probably mention it.  So if they don't say 
anything, wear the suit.

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#26717

On 2013-12-03 4:29 AM, Qu0ll wrote:
> "Arnold"  wrote in message news:l7iiri$uan$1@dont-email.me...
>
>> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
>> making the wrong choice of clothing.
>
> A few years ago I applied for a Java role at an animation studio.  They
> told me up front to come dressed casually and for some reason I
> suspected this was some kind of trap (you know, see if I actually
> respected them enough to wear a suit).
>
> When I turned up I was shocked to find both interviewers in tee shirts,
> shorts and sandals.  Then I looked around and the entire (extremely
> youthful) workforce was dressed similarly.
>
That reminds me of an incident where I was teaching a class at a 
customer site where I had never been. When we were organizing the 
course, I asked the customer who was requesting the course what their 
company dress code was so that I'd know how to dress for the class. He 
told me they were business casual. When I arrived though, EVERYONE in 
the class was dressed in suits! Naturally, I'd taken the customer at his 
word and wore business casual. (He was in the class himself.)

I never figured out why he misinformed me like that. I simply ignored 
the situation and wore a suit on the second day of the class. (It was a 
two day class.) If he ever complained to my boss about what I wore the 
first day, I never heard about it.

Maybe it was a terminology thing. I remember trying to help a customer 
with a DSL issue one time and I needed to know how many phone jacks she 
had in her house and what was connected to each one. She said she had 
three phone jacks but when I asked what was connected to each one, she 
claimed there was NOTHING plugged into any of them. I asked if she was 
calling on a cell phone; she said she was on a landline. I asked her to 
trace the wire from the phone to the jack and she did. I thought that 
would make it crystal clear to her what I meant by a phone jack. It 
didn't. She still insisted that each of the three jacks had nothing 
connected to them. Only later did the penny finally drop and she finally 
comprehended what I meant and gave me the proper information. Clearly, 
she didn't had some other term that she used where the rest of us say 
"phone jack". (And no, she did not have a problem with the English 
language. As far as I could tell, she was a lifelong American.) Maybe my 
customer just didn't know what "business casual" really meant and 
thought that if they were wearing two piece suits instead of three 
piece, that meant they were "business casual"....


-- 
Rhino

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#26719

Rhino wrote:

> That reminds me of an incident where I was teaching a class at a
> customer site where I had never been. When we were organizing the
> course, I asked the customer who was requesting the course what their
> company dress code was so that I'd know how to dress for the class. He
> told me they were business casual. When I arrived though, EVERYONE in
> the class was dressed in suits! Naturally, I'd taken the customer at his
> word and wore business casual. (He was in the class himself.)

One possible explanation is that you had asked what their dress-code was --  
i.e. what they would wear on a /typical/ day in the office -- not what they 
would wear to deal with outsiders they didn't know.

I'm a little surprised that on the second day, you didn't turn up in your suit 
to find everyone else suddenly in business casual...

    -- chris 

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#26727

On 2013-12-03 6:11 PM, Chris Uppal wrote:
> Rhino wrote:
>
>> That reminds me of an incident where I was teaching a class at a
>> customer site where I had never been. When we were organizing the
>> course, I asked the customer who was requesting the course what their
>> company dress code was so that I'd know how to dress for the class. He
>> told me they were business casual. When I arrived though, EVERYONE in
>> the class was dressed in suits! Naturally, I'd taken the customer at his
>> word and wore business casual. (He was in the class himself.)
>
> One possible explanation is that you had asked what their dress-code was --
> i.e. what they would wear on a /typical/ day in the office -- not what they
> would wear to deal with outsiders they didn't know.
>
I suppose that's possible. If it was very rare for "outsiders" to be in 
their building, they might normally have dressed business casual but 
been under orders to wear suits when people known to be outsiders were 
expected....

> I'm a little surprised that on the second day, you didn't turn up in your suit
> to find everyone else suddenly in business casual...
>
Believe me, I was halfways expecting it ;-) In fact, I think one or two 
of them may have been in business casual but this is 20-odd years ago 
and I just don't remember.


-- 
Rhino

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#26718

Qu0ll wrote:

> Needless to say I felt a bit silly but fortunately I got the job (even
> though I was older than everyone else I could see by a fair margin) :-)

May have helped that you /were/ older, and hence not expected to play by quite 
the same rules.

    -- chris 

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#26721

In article <l7iiri$uan$1@dont-email.me>, Arnold <arnie@example.com> 
wrote:

> I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it 
> still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is 
> business casual very common now?
> 
> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by 
> making the wrong choice of clothing.

That's extremely regional.  You should ask or check the web site for 
office photos.

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#26744

On 12/4/2013 12:56 AM, Kevin McMurtrie wrote:
> In article <l7iiri$uan$1@dont-email.me>, Arnold <arnie@example.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it
>> still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is
>> business casual very common now?
>>
>> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
>> making the wrong choice of clothing.
>
> That's extremely regional.  You should ask or check the web site for
> office photos.

Every day dress code and interview dress code may very well be different.

Arne

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#26725

On 12/02/2013 01:17 PM, Arnold wrote:
> I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it
> still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is
> business casual very common now?
>
> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
> making the wrong choice of clothing.
<http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm>

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#26746

On 12/4/2013 8:17 AM, Jeff Higgins wrote:
> On 12/02/2013 01:17 PM, Arnold wrote:
>> I'm an old guy and haven't been on a job interview in a while. Is it
>> still normal practice to wear suits to interviews in the IT field or is
>> business casual very common now?
>>
>> I don't want to get off on the wrong foot and disqualify myself by
>> making the wrong choice of clothing.
> <http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm>

Another more funny view:

http://www.dba-oracle.com/dress_code.htm

Arne

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#26747

On 12/06/2013 09:54 AM, Arne Vajhoej wrote:
>
> Another more funny view:
>
> http://www.dba-oracle.com/dress_code.htm
>
Thanks for that. :-)

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#26783

On 06.12.2013 15:58, Jeff Higgins wrote:
> On 12/06/2013 09:54 AM, Arne Vajhoej wrote:
>>
>> Another more funny view:
>>
>> http://www.dba-oracle.com/dress_code.htm
>>
> Thanks for that. :-)

But note, this is for consultants only! ;-)

Burleson is infamous in the Oracle community for his statements about 
Oracle performance tuning.  I for my part prefer what Richard Foote has 
to say about the matter.  It seems equal caution should be applied to 
his dress code recommendations...

Cheers

	robert

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