How to dress appropriately for an interview

linuxlover

I'm soon starting job hunting and I want to ask you people with more experience how to dress appropriately. This is what I have so far.

1.Business
black/navy suit
white shirt
dark low key tie
black leather shoes
black socks

2.Smart Casual
jacket/blazer
open necked shirt/polo
chinos
shoes

Mind you there's no dress code where I come from. People wear jeans here so help me dress properly. I'm going shopping for the next few days to buy a week's worth of clothes for my new hope-to-land job, but I don't know how to dress for IT. I don't know how much to buy, is it required to dress like that every day or is it only for interviews. I'm clueless, what do you wear at work?

colby_ar

When I go to interviews or meetings at client sites I usually wear a dark gray/charcoal suit, white shirt, plain or striped tie (any color), and brown belt and shoes (important that the colors semi match, though it doesn't have to be exact).

I used to go with the black/navy style, but it was too stuffy for me. The gray is much more stylish, comfortable, and still very professional. You could also wear it to a more casual interview and not feel over dressed while still looking professional.

Unless you are interviewing to be a lawyer, no one is going to require you to wear black/navy. Having a stylish (but still professional) look can actually help you stand out from the rest of the guys that grabbed the first black suit hanging on the rack.

Make note of what everyone else is wearing while you are there. Wear something similar for your next interview. It will give people the impression that you belong and are one of them.

linuxlover

Thanks. How much style is not too much style, you know what I mean? Do you have any pictures to share? That would help me more than words.

kj0

Head into your nearest city around lunch time and just have a look at the different types of people walking through the street. If there is a particular company that is along the lines of the companies you have applied for, then just have a walk past and glance into see what people inside might be wearing, e.g. Mainly black\grey suit, tie, etc.

walk down the street in 5 minutes and you'll know exactly what you should wear. My first job was at Maccas, I just wore jeans and a nice button up shirt (I was 15 at the time). However, every other interview I have dressed in a suit, and if I didn't have a suit at the time, it was still a business shirt with with a nice tie.

kohr-ah

I don't even own a suit jacket

I always go at minimum shirt, tie, black pants, black socks, black leather shoes.

So far I've had no issues.

ande0255

Yeah, I think a tucked in collared shirt, slacks, and a tie is fine. I think people who come in for interviews in business suits look ridiculous, unless it's a salesman.

proph21

Edited my whole post to say it depends on the situation. I had both types of outfits on for diff interviews. I noticed that if they want you to dress a certain way, they may tell you before the in-screen interview, or it's on their website under some section that talks about the interview process. I always wear the suit now with the tie and all those fixes because I have one, can't think of another reason aside from a wedding to wear it, and you never know. I want to always try and make a good impression in the event that the person interviewing me wears a suit and likes seeing others wear suits lol.

Once you get an IT job, depending where it is, you may be ok with just jeans or what not. I would say buy something a little more casual just for the interview and ask the HR person when you get the job on the dress attire that is recommended

mokaiba

linuxlover wrote: »

2.Smart Casualjacket/blazeropen necked shirt/polochinosshoes?

.

.I would go with Business Casual w/tie for 99% of the positions out there. I would only wear a suit for management, executive, or lawyer type interviews.

3. Business Casual w/tie
Business dress shirt
An undershirt that cannot be seen through the dress shirt (in other words, do not wear your emo, black and red goth is dead shirt under a white business dress shirt)
Tie
leather Belt (brown or black with simple latch)
Business dress pants
Black or brown leather shoes with socks either brown or black.

If you get the job, you can either drop the tie or keep it, depends on preference.

Dont forget to iron, or as I do it, I send all my business clothes to a dry cleaners every month.

SweenMachine

I disagree with the 'no suit' thing.

I live in Chicago, I was doing technical interviews for my previous position for 4 years. If I recall correctly, I remember ONE person coming in without a suit, out of maybe 200 I have done?

It doesn't have to be some pimped out Armani or anything, but you can get a decent suit from Goodwill for 10 bucks, or even Kohls for 100 bucks.

That last interview I went on and DIDNT wear a suit was my interview for Taco Bell..

just my two cents.

-scott

ptilsen

Different organizations and even different locations have different cultures. However, unless you know you're interviewing somewhere with a more casual culture, I'd recommend a suit. As SweenMachine said, it doesn't have to be fancy, but more is generally better. A suit is better than just a tie is better than business casual is better than street clothes. This being said, most organizations in most cities are probably going to weigh other factors more heavily than your dress so long as you don't look like a slob. You can generally succeed even without a tie, but the flip side is almost no one is going to penalize you for dressing up. Again, only if you know the company has a casual environment should you not dress up. This leaves me to my blanket recommendation:
Suit up unless you know they want you to dress down. There's just no reason not to.

linuxlover

I've worn a suit only once in my life, on my christening when I was 9 years old. There are no lunch breaks here, there's nobody to look up to. The only people wearing suits here are people in position such as CEOs, managers and politicians. You wouldn't believe bank teller workers dress casually (jeans and t-shirts), so yeah cultural differences. I'm moving to UK and they're well known for their dress codes, so I can't afford to dress myself out of a job. Thank you all so much for your tips and suggestions. Do the shirt sleeves have to come of the suit? What about the tie, do you wear skinny or fat tie? I don't know how much clothes to buy, should I be wearing these every day on the job? I've found a picture, something like this?

devils_haircut

I think it all comes down to where you live. People in big cities are going to say suit, while people in more rural areas will say no suit. I'm still fairly low-level, but I have yet to wear a suit to an interview, and I haven't had trouble finding a job. I'm sure at higher levels it's expected.

mokaiba

devils_haircut wrote: »

I think it all comes down to where you live. People in big cities are going to say suit, while people in more rural areas will say no suit. I'm still fairly low-level, but I have yet to wear a suit to an interview, and I haven't had trouble finding a job. I'm sure at higher levels it's expected.

I live in a usa city (Phoenix metropolitan area) of five million, if you need perspective on my above post.

lsud00d

Bring some color into it, white shirt and plain ties are boring IMO. You don't want your clothes to be distracting but you can make subtle/subconscious impressions on whoever you interview with by putting a little more effort into looking sharp/dapper that day.

tprice5

When in doubt, go all out ...

stryder144

Here is a link that might provide a little insight.

Cheers

linuxlover

Thanks everyone. I've done A LOT of research during the weekend and watching tutorials on Youtube for 10h/day really upgraded my knowledge on the the topic to the level where I can say there's nothing more I can learn about it. So now I finally have a picture of what is corporate professional, business casual, when to wear what, how to buy clothes, color combinations, maintenance... Cheers!

olaHalo

1st interview I always wear a suit. Sometimes no tie depending on where it is.
2nd interviews I go blazer and jeans.

Someone once commented on me not wearing a jacket to an interview and since then I always do

scaredoftests

I wear a suit. Can't go wrong dressing nice to a interview. Sometimes, I wear a nice dress..but more comfortabel wearing pants.

tprice5

scaredoftests wrote: »

Sometimes, I wear a nice dress..

I don't mean to be sexist but this really caught me off guard, ha.

egrizzly

also search for "how to tie a tie" or "how to dress for an interview" on Youtube so you can get some visuals. thanks

scaredoftests

tprice5 wrote: »

I don't mean to be sexist but this really caught me off guard, ha.

funny, but then again I could be a dude.. LOL
Now THAT would one heck of a interview..wouldn't it...?