Does anybody dress up for interviews anymore?

[Bill Bukovec]

Does anybody dress up for interviews anymore?

We had some candidates come into our company for interviews. The job is for a maintenance technician, requiring a two year associate degree.

Two of he candidates had dockers and a button down shirt.

One had a T-shirt, blue jeans ans sneakers.

I know you can't judge a book by it's cover, all I expect is a little effort.

I always wear a dress shirt, slacks tie and sport coat to interviews..

A T-shirt and jeans are OK for when you are working, sometimes things get a little dirty.

Just wondering if I'm way off base.

By the way, I recommended hiring the jeans and sneaker guy.

Bill

[Bill McNiel]

I believe the Rule of Thumb has always been "Dress for the job you want". Does a Maintaince Tech wear a sportscoat and tie?

[Pat Barry]

I would be floored if a maintenance tech came to work wearing a shirt and tie / sport coat / jacket with nicely polished shoes and khaki slacks

[Dave Anderson NH]

I would suggest that whether or not someone should dress up would be based on what kind of job they are looking to get. For sales, marketing, office work, accounting, and the professions, the first interview should definitely be coat and tie at least. Someone looking for the job you describe should only need to be neat, clean, and dressed in what is now commonly called business casual. Admittedly, I would look askance as someone showing up in jeans, shorts, a tee shirt (a polo shirt would be all right though), and without proper grooming. For a woman, excessive makeup, clothing too tight, excessive cleavage showing, and bare midriffs would also be major negatives. After aceing the interview and being hired everything depends on company policy and culture. The business world has become a lot less formal since we were young.

[paul cottingham]

Back when I was still working, and we had our network consulting company, we had to hire a new employee. The fellow we hired showed up for the interview in dirty work clothes cause he had come straight from a temp job removing fibreglass from an old boat. And after the interview was off to another physical, dirty job. Hired him on the spot.
Four reasons. 1) He was clearly hardworking, with a strong work ethic. 2) even though he was a trained network engineer (and a very skilled one, as it turned out) working at a "menial" job to pay his bills was clearly not beneath him. A shocking number of people sit on their asses and expect jobs to find them. 3) he was obviously good with his hands, something we found to be a huge, and often untrainable, asset. This was around when I started to lose the feeling in my right hand and some of my coordination, so having another person to do that kind of work was important. 4) he was really keen to learn, another thing one can't train into people. During the interview we got into a discussion about routing and setting up temporary routers made with old computers, and he was excited and enthusiastic to learn new stuff, and asked great questions.

My partner and I were both technical trainers in network design and installation, as well as windows and Unix. So we knew we could train to fill knowledge gaps. You can't teach work ethic. So, frankly, even though the job required dressing neatly, for the interview, we happily overlooked it.

[Wade Lippman]

I believe the Rule of Thumb has always been "Dress for the job you want". Does a Maintaince Tech wear a sportscoat and tie?

Gotta agree with this. He wants to show he is a good worker, not that he has nice clothes.

[Wes Mitchell]

I would expect people to dress a notch above what they would wear on a normal work day. If you're interviewing for a jeans and t-shirt job, wear khakis and a polo/button up shirt. If you are interviewing for a business casual job, wear slacks and a tie or add a sport coat. If you're interviewing for a job where you'd regularly wear a tie/sport coat, wear a suit for the interview. Note: that's probably where it ends, if you're interviewing for a suit and tie job, I wouldn't expect a Tuxedo for the interview :). I don't think jeans and a t-shirt should ever be acceptable interiew wear.

[Jim Koepke]

Haven't worn a "coat and tie" since my last job interview.

Now that I am retired I do not expect to wear one again.

If someone was qualified for a job, the lack of fancy dress could be overlooked.

jtk

[ryan paulsen]

I would expect people to dress a notch above what they would wear on a normal work day. If you're interviewing for a jeans and t-shirt job, wear khakis and a polo/button up shirt. If you are interviewing for a business casual job, wear slacks and a tie or add a sport coat. If you're interviewing for a job where you'd regularly wear a tie/sport coat, wear a suit for the interview. Note: that's probably where it ends, if you're interviewing for a suit and tie job, I wouldn't expect a Tuxedo for the interview :). I don't think jeans and a t-shirt should ever be acceptable interiew wear.

This was always the recommendation I received when I was interviewing. I also get the feeling that if you dress up too much (ie shirt and tie for a jeans/t shirt job) it looks like you're trying too hard, or unsure of what the job requirements are.

It would be nice to believe that most people can see past your clothes, but unfortunately this is what makes up a good chunk of the first impression.

[Brian Elfert]

I interviewed for a number of jobs the last time I was in the job market some 15 years ago. I wore a suit to all of them except the interview for my current job. The hiring manager when he called me about the interview specifically told me not to wear a suit to the interview. I went out and bought a new dress shirt and dress pants just for the interview.

[Frank Drew]

Applying for professional firefighter jobs often requires suits and ties for interviews, as does classroom time in some police academies. Curious, but there it is. Sometimes what seem like arbitrary, not really necessary requirements are to see who will make the effort to get with the program.

[glenn bradley]

Depends if the maintenance technician is maintaining water heaters or computer storage arrays. Jeans and a t-shirt state that the interview was given no thought and the candidate just sort of dropped by. A shirt and tie are not appropriate for every position but, something other than sneakers is not out of the question :). JMHO.

[Dan Hintz]

I would expect people to dress a notch above what they would wear on a normal work day. If you're interviewing for a jeans and t-shirt job, wear khakis and a polo/button up shirt. If you are interviewing for a business casual job, wear slacks and a tie or add a sport coat. If you're interviewing for a job where you'd regularly wear a tie/sport coat, wear a suit for the interview. Note: that's probably where it ends, if you're interviewing for a suit and tie job, I wouldn't expect a Tuxedo for the interview :). I don't think jeans and a t-shirt should ever be acceptable interiew wear.

I think my view aligns with Wes's... though I would certainly give a pass without question to the guy Paul interviewed. I often go to interviews in my work clothes (jeans, sneakers, and polo), mainly because I'm going to them directly after work and it would look odd if I showed up to work in a suit and tie. If the interview did not interrupt my daily schedule, it would still be suit and tie, but that's rare these days.

[paul cottingham]

Yeah, the other thing that helped out the candidate was that he brought up the router. After we introduced ourselves, and talked a bit, he said "what's that?" And pointed at the network we had diagrammed with the routing tables on a napkin. And we got talking, and as comes naturally, started teaching. His enthusiasm, and clear aptitude won the day for him.

[Ole Anderson]

One of the owners of our consulting engineering company was a real down to earth guy and came to work one day dressed very casual with a flannel shirt, although he often wore a suit. A stranger saw him walking the halls and asked if he was the custodian.

I would say dress one notch up from the job you want unless that job normally requires a suit, don't bother wearing a tux for an interview.

[Brian Ashton]

Depends on whether you're confident enough to believe you have the job. If your hot stuff then you do what ever. If your don't think it's yours to lose, then you don't leave anything for chance. Dressing up always shows you care and you're serious about winning the job.

[Keith Outten]

Since the interviewer has the power to hire a candidate or not I believe that what they think is the most important part of the equation. At my age if I was interviewing someone for a position in my company I would give serious weight to how a candidate is dressed and the quality of their communication skills before I started evaluating technical merit or competence for a particular job. If you present yourself in attire fit for the beach we would have a very short interview. If your command of the language is poor I wouldn't want you to even answer the phone much less represent my company in a meeting or preparing any kind of correspondence.

If your a college graduate basic skills should have been mastered long before you get to the job interview process IMO. Its not unreasonable to expect you to be prepared for the workforce and its unlikely that those who have little interest in their appearance will show any concern for my company or fellow employees. If you have completed your education and you have not learned to dress yourself you might consider enlisting in the military, they teach you how to dress properly and other basic skills in boot camp. If your old enough to sign a legal contract and don't have a signature I don't think I have any advice that would benefit you in any way, the system has failed you and you are at a serious disadvantage in the workforce.
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[Mike Cutler]

I do/did.

I've been in my current job since 1985, and interviewed last month for a new position. The people I interviewed with I've worked with on and off for close to thirty years. One was a former supervisor, the other my current supervisor. ( They busted my chops about being dressed up, and said they were going to take pictures to prove I did it. :eek:)
Dressing for an interview shows respect for the people doing the interview, and the position being applied for.

[Frederick Skelly]

Depends if the maintenance technician is maintaining water heaters or computer storage arrays. Jeans and a t-shirt state that the interview was given no thought and the candidate just sort of dropped by. A shirt and tie are not appropriate for every position but, something other than sneakers is not out of the question :). JMHO.

I agree. I wouldnt expect a guy who is applying for an assembly line job to wear a suit. But hes probably interviewing with someone who works in the office. Id wear a shirt and tie to show some positive attitude. One small indication that I want the job and that Im someone who is willing to go an extra mile. If he is a college grad and shows up for an engineering interview in jeans, he risks a first impression that he doesnt "get it".

A buddy of mine once had to take a new college grad into the bathroom and clean him up before the interview. He told the candidate "I only mean to help you. But if you interview with Mike right now, you'll get off to a rough start." My friend literally had to smooth the candidate's rumpled suit (didnt know he should have had it pressed or he just didnt care?), tuck in the collar, straighten the tie and have him COMB HIS HAIR. My friend casually asked him about his background. The candidate's dad and mom were college graduates in office jobs - my point being that he likely had some exposure to how to wear dress clothes growing up. He gave my friend the impression that he just didnt care enough to "play the game".

[Frederick Skelly]

Dressing for an interview shows respect for the people doing the interview, and the position being applied for.

I strongly agree. You said it a lot better and more concisely than I did Mike.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

My all-time favorite interview story, of which I have many, is the girl who walked in with cheerleader Pompoms and spelled her name out with a cheer. "Hi, my name is S-A-L-L-Y ... SALLY!!! This was for a management position. To her credit, we remembered her name.

Lately I am mostly interviewing candidates for sales positions. I am amazed at what people show up in. These are $50k plus positions and the job is outside sales to large corporations. Even the ladies showed up in such things as jogging suits. Men wore short sleeves, two top buttons undone, and overall sloppy.

My favorite answer to the question, "Why did you leave your job?"- "Well, my boss doesn't like me. We have these stupid quotas and I never make them. He gave me a bad review... He's a real Jerk!" Next question: (At this point he has failed the interview but I am just interested in hearing more.) "So, what is your favorite job and why?" Him: "I like the winding machine." Me: "That's interesting, why that machine?" (I was actually thinking he was going to say he liked technical work or something.) Him: "Well, it's in the corner where the boss can't see me, so I can kind of work at my own pace. That's when he told me I wasn't doing a good job. He's such a jerk." Me: "So you really don't like this guy, do you?" Him: "I hate him. I have hated all my bosses. I guess I just don't like being told what to do." Me: "Okay, well thank you for taking the time to interview. Let me show you the way out."

[Rich Engelhardt]

"I hate him. I have hated all my bosses. I guess I just don't like being told what to do."Sort of a side drift to this thread,,,,but,,,,what's always amazed me over the years is how so many contractors and small business owners have the "I hate taking orders from someone", attitude like that.
They just can't figure out why things all fall apart on them so often whenever they and their customers disagree on something.
I've known dozens, if not hundreds, of people like that who are excellent craftsmen, but, they just can't seem to grasp that working for yourself means that everyone is your boss.

[Brian W Smith]

It's a two way street.

For some reason I was "enticed" by a CL listing for some,what I thought was a contract job.So I have the usual dress code on....heck,might even had a label on?So anyway,get to the place and theres two entrances.......I know the dumbell "contractor" that built this rather,large complex and he's pretty much a dolt,which explains the two doors.So,I apparently I went in the wrong entrance.....which I swear,they both looked the same.

The 30 sumthin woman,who I think was a secretary....which was strike one against them.What ever happened to,"Hi,welcome to XYZ co.,my name is miss piggy(or whatever),do you have an appointment"?Nope,get admonished for using the wrong door with an extremely snotty "tude"."What do you want"?....was the next line.My reply was...."well I'd like to know if I'm even in the right place of business".It really goes downhill from there.

The point is;you folks looking for hires have some responsibility in this.Come in,let us check out your dress code,and shoving an application in someones face may be a turnoff?HR depts that have more education than any sort of sensibility twds the job at hand(one they've never even done).....may be costing you some potentially VG hires.Just sayin.

Oh yeah,the place above had been in business for 6 years.......doh.

[Kevin Bourque]

I would have come to the maintenance job interview with my filthy overalls and a wrench in my hand.