IDR (Interview Dress Protocol)

Starter

How do you guys dress when you go for a job interview? (shirt and tie... or less formal?)

LaTech

Honestly, I do as much research ahead of time to see what their company environment is like. If they have a website with lots of people in ties, I wear a tie. If they are all in suits, I wear a suit.

You want to be comfortable, but at the same time, set yourself apart.

garv221

LaTech wrote:

Honestly, I do as much research ahead of time to see what their company environment is like. If they have a website with lots of people in ties, I wear a tie. If they are all in suits, I wear a suit.

You want to be comfortable, but at the same time, set yourself apart.

Bingo.

Webmaster

It may depend a bit on the job function and company, but on this side of the pond a suit and tie is kinda mandatory.

Your question reminds me of a job interview I went to several years ago. I worked for an outsourcing company (outsourcing IT personel to companies without a dedicated IT department) and the best job opportunity I had so far came by. So I bought a new sweater especially for the job interview. Next day, I and my new sweater went to the job interview together with a guy from the outsourcing company, kinda like my agent who's job was to sell me. The guy wore a suit so tight it looked like he was carved from wood, and his yellow tie was shining so bright it hurt my eyes. I really wanted that job, and was somewhat nervous, but at least I was comfortable in my fifty bucks sweater. About 3 feet from the entry of the fancy and modern building, they guy looked at me and asked why I wasn't wearing a suite. Overruled by the calming blue color of my sweater I ingored his remark. Inside the building a friendly lady walks us to the room where I was to be interviewed. She opens the door and a guy with his hair in all directions, a red and grey striped sweater and some old jeans gets up from his chair and introduces himself as the IT manager. The main part of the interview went something like this:

IT man: so this is our WAN, and these are the locations with an Exchange server. We want to add exchange servers in those locations and need a connection to a CC mail server in Indonesia.
I: Ok, so how are those exchange servers currently connected? X.400 connectors?
IT man smiles: No no, we are using Site Connectors, we performed some tests and it turned out to be much faster.
I: But I see that several of these locations are connected with 64K or less and that they don't have a local BDC, the line is also used for Internet, terminal services... Were any of the test performed on these links or only here (pointing at their core location with multiple exchange servers sharing a high bandwidth connection).
IT man: only there. But I think there was also an issue with having to purchase separate X.400 licenses.
I: Exchange 5.5 includes a license for one X.400 connection, so if you connect them (12 of them) like this, this and that, you'd only need to purchase one additional license. And the great thing is that you can fine tune them for those low-speed connections.

This went on for about 40 minutes, from NT4 domains, exchange sites, cisco access routers, only technical stuff. The IT manager looks at his watch, shakes my hand and says:"I'll see you on Monday". My agent started mumbling, with his face all red, and the IT man cuts him off, telling him he's in a rush and will contact him by phone later. The job was for six months, I worked there for almost three years.

Of course I was lucky that the IT man knew his stuff, and wasn't wearing a suit and tie himself. Like the previous poster said, try to do some reasearch. In case of doubt, I think the suit and tie is safest. But in the end the most important thing is what's on your resume and which words come out of your mouth during the interview.

Non-Profit Techie

I always wear a suit and tie. But most important BE YOURSELF!

Starter

I am not going for a job interview or anything. Just wanted to know for future reference.

Thanks much for all of you for replying.

bighusker

It really depends on what type of job it is, and what the company is like. I actually interviewed with a place today, and in the days leading up to my interview, I looked over their website. *Every* guy pictured was in a suit. However, they're a financial services company and all the guys in those pictures were salaried professionals.

The position I was applying for was in the IT Department as a part-time "Desktop Technician", so it would be extremely unlikely I'd be wearing a suit, much less a tie. Since most all internal IT departments are "business casual", I followed the "dress a step above what you normally would wear for that position" rule and simply wore a nice shirt&tie and no suit.

Since the guy interviewing me (who was the HEAD OF THE IT DEPARTMENT) was wearing much the same attire, I would have felt like a jackass if I was wearing a suit. While I doubt he would have thought any less of me for being "too formal", I think I made the right choice....especially considering I was offered the job just a few hours after the interview

I feel comfortable in saying that for most IT and computer related jobs, business casual or a shirt&tie will be fine. That's what I've worn all four times I have been interviewed, and I have been offered three of those jobs. The one I didn't get had nothing to do with my interview attire since my interviewer made a point of mentioning that good clothes should not be worn on this job (it was a network wiring position).

Of course, there are always exceptions. The jobs I have interviewed for have all been entry-level type stuff. If you're interviewing for a salaried position with a big formal company or something, then a suit would probably be neccessary.

Starter

congratulations on your new job

bighusker

starter wrote:

congratulations on your new job

Thanks. I think the biggest factor that helped me land this position was the fact that my resume and cover letter were very *articulate* and professional. The interviewer made a point of complimenting my "proper sentence structure" and said it was "refreshing" to read a cover letter that didn't look like it was written in l337 speak by a 6th grader.

I do have an A+, Net+, a few months experience working in a PC Repair shop, and have completed 3 years of a Computer Science degree, but I think my speech and writing skills are what got me in. I think that's something that is often overlooked by many candidates. My advice is to proofread those resumes and applications 10 times over. The sad reality of this field is that many people just don't have good English skills.

keenon

suit and tie in some cases but mostly a nice dress shirt and slacks are good

jmc724

I have always worn nice casual dress shirts and slacks (cotton). I had never worn a tie or suit (I feel it makes you feel over-dressed).

I have a major interview setup with an energy corp(techical analyst), in which I will do the tie thing but I dont have a business suit. The idea is to sell myself and not sell the clothes I am wearing...

I have been to another interview(SysAdmin) this week (engineering firm) and I wore just a shirt and slacks. I felt a little over-dressed by seeing what my future co-workers wore. I was interviewed by the IT Manager and was presented to their benefits person. It seems that I am in already in since they already asked me about benefits, gave me their benefits package and how comfortable I would feel to be working there. I may have a second interview.

garv221

Congrats to both of you.

Slowhand

These days, as well as for most other job interviews, I'll usually wear a pair of slacks and a button-down shirt. I usually go for the business-casual look. However. . . (and that's a big however), there were two exceptions.

When I applied for my first "real enterprise IT" position, I came in after a hurried phone interview. I thought "Oh, what the hell?" and wore a t-shirt. The first thing the VP of the company, who was inverviewing me did was crack up, point to the shirt, and said "I use that phrase every day". The Sr. Engineer had a chuckle about it too, as they both knew what it meant. In this particular case, they had me do both sets of interviews, one with the VP and one with the engineering team, in one sitting and offered me the job on the spot.

The next job I had was with an IT outsourcing firm. It was a very slick, very polished IT shop that had most people walking around in slacks and button-downs, or $200 jeans and $100 designer sweaters. For the first interview I wore the business-casual, but for the second one I decided to go a little geek. I wore another t-shirt and a pair of tan slacks to the next interview with the ops manager and the senior systems administrator. They both chuckled about it, especially the sr. sysadmin who later became a good friend of mine. However, when coming in for the third time, I was asked by the HR manager to "wear what I would consider professional, something I would show up to a client site in." She laughed, and said that I should "think of it as kind of a test".

I wore slacks and a polo shirt. Suffice it to say, I got the job. However, having the balls to walk into a meeting with one of the owners of the company along with a member of the senior staff, wearing a t-shirt, earned me the nickname TIG. . . T-shirt Interview Guy.

dynamik

I'm more curious how you stumbled upon this 2.5 year old thread. Hopefully he got a job by now!

The topic could have used a bit of proofreading though. How did that get messed up?

Starter wrote:

IDR (Interview Dress Protocol)

Slowhand

dynamik wrote:

I'm more curious how you stumbled upon this 2.5 year old thread. Hopefully he got a job by now!

The topic could have used a bit of proofreading though. How did that get messed up?

Starter wrote:

IDR (Interview Dress Protocol)

You'd be surprised at what I stumble over when I mix whiskey and tequila. Besides, the topic makes perfect sense to me.

astorrs

dynamik wrote:

I'm more curious how you stumbled upon this 2.5 year old thread.

Yeah there seems to be a pandemic of dead threads resurfacing these days.

techimaster

Man, this is an old thread but a common question. I think dress sense for interviews depends on 3 things:

Role
Company
Location

Since its been a while, wonder if the guy taking the interview is still here to give us an update??

BradleyHU

man, this thread couldnt have come at a better time, because i have an interview on friday @ a top tier university, for a position in their IT dept, and i was just wondering what to wear. I've always gone for interviews in my suit, but i've always felt over dressed too, especially when i see what the pplz interviewing me are wearing. One of my friends, that works with me, went on an interview today during his lunch break, and he was just rockin a button up & slacks. so now, i'm really tryin to see what should i wear, cuz a button up & slacks sounds great to me.

oo_snoopy

BradleyHU wrote:

man, this thread couldnt have come at a better time, because i have an interview on friday @ a top tier university, for a position in their IT dept, and i was just wondering what to wear. I've always gone for interviews in my suit, but i've always felt over dressed too, especially when i see what the pplz interviewing me are wearing. One of my friends, that works with me, went on an interview today during his lunch break, and he was just rockin a button up & slacks. so now, i'm really tryin to see what should i wear, cuz a button up & slacks sounds great to me.

There is no such thing as to professional. I think you're right on with the suit and should wear it.


Have you ever seen someone who was well dressed and said, gosh I think less of them because they look so sharp ?

JavonR

Rule of thumb: Always wear a suit.

No matter what the companies dress policy is you will never be looked down upon because you are dressed "too professional". Worst case scenario, you are slightly overdressed but that is a good thing . If you want to play some Russian Roulette be my guest, but I'll stick with the suit.

Slowhand

I don't agree with the "always wear a suit" notion. I have been told, on more than one occasion, by employers that they don't want their IT staff wearing ties, suits, or anything too formal. In fact, one employer told me that their staff is explicitly forbidden from wearing formal business wear and anyone violating this rule would be written up.

Dress appropriately for the position you're applying for or working in. If you're in doubt of the dress code, ask. There's nothing wrong with asking an HR director or CIO, "what is the dress-code of your company?", especially if you explain that you don't want to seem out of place with the company image or atmosphere.

JavonR

I have a difference of opinion on that. While the company may have a business-casual everyday wear, interviews are completely different. But thats just me

learningtofly22

THREAD FROM THE DEAD 2.0!

I've had a pretty good ratio of interviews to offers. I check out the company and see what everyone's wearing. I'll dress 1 step up from there; ie if everyone wears jeans/shirt, I'll wear slacks/button up. If they wear slacks/button up, I'll wear a suit.

I've never heard of someone being "overdressed" for an interview. You don't work there yet, so don't dress like you do. You have to sell yourself, dressing up a bit gives the vibe that you're actually interested in the job.

networker050184

Slowhand wrote:

I don't agree with the "always wear a suit" notion. I have been told, on more than one occasion, by employers that they don't want their IT staff wearing ties, suits, or anything too formal. In fact, one employer told me that their staff is explicitly forbidden from wearing formal business wear and anyone violating this rule would be written up.

Dress appropriately for the position you're applying for or working in. If you're in doubt of the dress code, ask. There's nothing wrong with asking an HR director or CIO, "what is the dress-code of your company?", especially if you explain that you don't want to seem out of place with the company image or atmosphere.

I agree that just because the company may not wear suits on a daily basis does not mean they are not appropriate for interviews. I wear jeans and tennis shoes to work, but that doesn't mean I would wear that to the interview. I know if I were hiring someone I would expect them to show up to the interview in a suit, so I always do the same. Better safe than sorry I say.