« Pre-party cleaning | Home | Shoes to dress up or down an outfit »
Dressing for job interviews at casual companies
By Meg | May 31, 2007
The first impression you make on a potential employer is the most important one. The first judgement an interviewer makes is going to be based on how you look and what you are wearing. That’s why it’s always important to dress professionally for a job interview, even if the work environment is casual.
You’ll want that first impression to be not just a good one, but, a great one. The candidate dressed in a suit and tie is going to make a much better impression than the candidate dressed in scruffy jeans and a t-shirt.
In fact, the only thing she recommends as an option is a suit (and specifically, a skirt suit for women). The same suit assumption is given by QuintCareers.com for both men and women.
While a suit used to be a safe assumption, the truth is it may be too conservative or too dressy or just too blah for some types of jobs. Would you wear a suit if you were interviewing for a job as a mechanic? …a tatoo artist? Well, it may depend on the particular place and the people working there.
In today’s post at Omiru.com, Trisha answers the question What to Wear to an Engineering Interview for Women, which is a follow up to a previous post What to Wear to an Engineering Interview which answered this question:
Q: I’ve got an interview at a software startup next week. What should I wear? I hear that the company is very informal, but I think I should dress up anyways.
Instead of advocating suits for everyone, Trisha says in the men’s article:
The ideal interview outfit not only makes you look like the professional you are, but also respects this casual dress tradition. Mix casual and formal elements… No Suits Allowed. Should you wear a suit to an engineering interview, don’t be surprised if you’re weeded out as a “poor culture fit.”
And in the women’s article:
Like we said in the men’s article, the ideal interview outfit blends the professionalism required of a job interview with the casual spirit of a tech startup.
My mom, whose job used to be helping others get jobs, has always given me this advice: When dressing for an interview, dress a bit nicer than the company’s employees. I think that’s great advice. You’ll show people that you care enough about the job to put in extra effort (which people expect at an interview), but still look like you’ll fit in. So, if you really want a job somewhere, part of your pre-interview preparation might involve taking a peek at what everyone’s wearing (just don’t catch them on casual Friday). And of course, whatever you wear, it should look put together.
What do people wear where you work? Have you ever felt over- or under-dressed at an interview?
Tags: Fashion, Impressions, Work
Related Posts:
May 31st, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Ugh. Women out here just do not get that business casual means BUSINESS.
However, my husband always wears a suit to an interview and it is well received. Normal work apparel in architecture, engineering, and construction management out here is basically khakis and dress shirt, the more formal offices add a tie, the less formal may wear a polo.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:19 pm
[…] Meg at All About Appearances. In her post Dressing for Job Interviews at Casual Companies, which is about all I see out here, she shares a bit of advice from her (brilliant!) mom: When […]
June 1st, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Thanks for the link Rebecca! There is definitely a difference between “casual” and “business casual” that I think a lot of people miss. In many way, suits and other work uniforms are so much easier to work with.
June 11th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Trinny & Susannah have a great deal to say about dressing for job interviews, and give some example do’s and don’ts in their book ‘What Not to Wear for Every Occasion’. I consider that my bible when dressing for job interviews.
June 21st, 2007 at 3:21 am
Thanks for tip Gauri, I’ll have to put that book on my list.
June 28th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Sigh. Interview attire for office jobs, for women, means one of the following:
- dress and blazer
- shirt/blouse or smart shell top, skirt, and blazer
- shirt/blouse or smart shell top, trousers, and blazer
- skirt suit
- trouser suit
These are standard interview attire, and any company that weeds you out as a “poor culture fit” because you showed up in standard interview attire instead of second-guessing that they wanted you to show up in ripped jeans and a pierced brain, is just being unfair. You can’t be expected to anticipate that kind of unfairness.
I know the received wisdom is to “dress as if you already had the job”, but until you’ve been to the first interview you don’t have enough information to do that. I wouldn’t even dress down for a second interview unless I was very, very sure that it was absolutely the right thing to do - because everybody knows an interview is a special occasion. If you show up in khakis to an interview, the recruiters might wonder whether you’ll have the sense to dress up for meetings with clients.
I also think that Trinny and Susannah’s interview outfits, other than the “smart” outfits, are far too risky. They work in media, where jeans are acceptable every day, but I still wouldn’t show up for a media job interview in jeans. I would follow their “smart” suggestions for every interview.
There are two things you don’t want: blowing an interview because you made the interviewers focus on your bizarre clothing choices instead of your skills; and working for obnoxious prats who are going to blame you for following widely-accepted social dress norms instead of reading their minds. By showing up in standard interview attire, you can avoid both.
June 28th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Hi H. Thanks for the comment.
First off, there are many levels of “casual”. I don’t believe that a casual interview necessarily means that ripped jeans and “a pierced brain” is o.k. There is a lot of room between that or “bizarre clothing” and a suit, just like there are many different types of companies.
I also disagree a bit when you say that weeding someone out as a poor culture fit is unfair. While personally I do believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt, part of interviewer’s job is to make sure that they hire people who are going to fit in to some extent. Think of it this way, if someone showed up to a bank interview in ripped jeans and covered in piercings, doesn’t the interviewer have a right to weed them out for not fitting into the bank culture - no matter how qualified they may be?
Interviewing is a mind game, whether we like it or not and it is important to try to anticipate what the interviewer is looking for. Should you have to be a mind reader? No. But if you really want a specific job, it pays to do a little research about the company before the interview.
Are some people “obnoxious prats”? I guess so, though I don’t believe that paying attention to a job candidate’s attire is necessarily obnoxious.
You do have a choice when it comes to choosing a company. If you don’t like the company culture, then you are probably better else working for some other company. After all, that’s why interviewers look to see if you fit into the company culture, because if you don’t you’ll likely be unhappy working there.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Hi Meg! I love your site, thanks for giving so much thought to issues that too often get neglected.
I think I should reduce my point of view to essentials. A standard interview outfit will rise to a certain level of formality, and any company that blames a candidate for wearing a standard interview outfit is being unfair, unless they have given them very clear instructions to wear something else.
By the same token, I think it is risky for a candidate to choose a set of garments that goes outside the standard unless they’re very sure that the interviewers actively expect them to wear casual clothes.
You wrote:
‘First off, there are many levels of “casual”. I don’t believe that a casual interview necessarily means that ripped jeans and “a pierced brain” is o.k.’
I am not suggesting that ripped jeans and a pierced brain are O.K. either. However, precisely because there are so many levels of “casual”, picking a casual outfit for an interview provides many ways to get it wrong. That’s why blaming a candidate for showing up in a suit is effectively blaming them for not guessing what level of casual is de rigueur at the company. This is something they have no way to be sure of until they’ve visited the place.
You also wrote:
‘I also disagree a bit when you say that weeding someone out as a poor culture fit is unfair’
I didn’t say that weeding someone out as a poor culture fit is unfair. That’s perfectly fair. What I said was not fair is weeding someone out as a poor culture fit because they showed up to an interview in standard interview attire.
Of course a candidate showing up to a bank interview in ripped jeans and covered in body piercings should be weeded out as a poor culture fit. This is not only because it would be inconsistent with the everyday employee attire at that particular bank, but because it is so inconsistent with normal business etiquette. Wearing a suit would not be inconsistent with normal business etiquette, even if the everyday dress at that bank were more casual.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Thanks H. for clarifying and I’m very glad you like the site. I’m also sorry for misunderstanding you. I think you made some very good points.
I would say that most companies do expect job candidates to wear traditional interview attire (i.e. a suit) and it definitely is risky to show up in a more casual outfit unless you know for certain that is what is expected (people should definitely research the company before showing up in a casual outfit).
This post, then, is really focused on a minority of cases where companies do have a strong anti-suit culture. Although it is still a rarity, it is important to address because a lot of people are unsure about how to dress for such interviews. I know this because I keep an eye on the Google searches people have made to get to this blog and many revolve around this topic. In fact, this post is still the most popular post on my blog, much to my own surprise.
June 28th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Oh yes, I agree! It is very much worth addressing. A lot of people do get very worried about what they should wear to an interview, which is unfortunate.
I think you give very good advice when you say to dress a bit better than the existing employees, for the occasion. If you’re really uneasy about looking too suity, and you are able to find out what the existing employees usually wear, then your strategy is undoubtedly the best bet.
June 28th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Thanks! I can’t take much credit, though, because it’s a lesson I learned from my mom and I don’t know if I would have come up with it on my own.
July 6th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
[…] interviews or on the job when a suit is not appropriate. As you know if you’ve read my post Dressing for Job Interviews at Casual Companies, there are some times now when a suit is no longer the best choice for an interview. You […]
July 12th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
[…] Between My Peers soon followed and has also been active on my blog. Rebecca also linked to my post Dressing for Job Interviews at Casual Companies in her Just Linking post on June 1st, and to top it all off, called my mom “brilliant”. […]
October 15th, 2007 at 3:07 am
[…] fabulous! organizer/administrator person, Meg, explains Dressing for Job Interviews at Casual Companies. She also delivers solid advice concerning the question Is It OK to Dress Better Than Your […]