Dress code for the IT field.

Hello,

I am getting ready for a job in the IT field and want to start considering what to wear. I figured I would see what everyone's job titles are, and what they wear to work. Does your employer have a strict dress code? If you are free to wear whatever you want, what do you choose?

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pinkydapimp

thatguy67 wrote: »

Hello,

I am getting ready for a job in the IT field and want to start considering what to wear. I figured I would see what everyone's job titles are, and what they wear to work. Does your employer have a strict dress code? If you are free to wear whatever you want, what do you choose?

My dress code ranges from my PJs when im working from home to a suit when doing a presentation for C levels. Im a sales engineer for reference.

I think you will find in IT there is no norm. it all depends on the company and the person. Obviously if im sitting in a network closet all day i am going to not wear a suit. But if i am interacting with users or management i would want to look nice regardless of whether its "required"

srabiee

Polos or button-up shirts with slacks and casual dress shoes. If not on a client site, we didn't tuck in our polos. When on client sites or when clients were present in the building, shirts must be tucked in. Basically business casual attire.

When I worked in an IT call center, it was jeans and t-shirt every day.

Dieg0M

It will depend of the enterprise you work for. I have a strict, no tie policy since reading this blog post: EtherealMind's Fashion Tips for Network Engineering Men - EtherealMind

spicy ahi

Aloha shirts and khaki's!

jabokim

Button up shirt, nice jeans, and nice shoes.

New2ITinCali

I'm a Technology Support Specialist and I wear jeans, t-shirts and sneakers. I climb ladders to reach IDF's and I crawl underneath tables so I wear very casual attire and so do all of my co-workers, except for the I.T. Director of course

NinjaBoy

At our place, it's a black branded polo shirt with black work trousers and work shoes (personally I wear trainers with steel toe caps).

It used to be whatever we wanted, but one of my techs came in with ripped jeans and tops with not so "work friendly" designs (even though he was told not to) then Upper management wanted to implement shirt and tie because of this, I negotiated a middle ground (of the above). Too say that that tech didn't last long was an understatement (there was also performance issues). Me, I'm the IT Manager.

jibbajabba

In the two MSPs I worked for you were lucky to find shaved blokes. Jeans, trainers and T-Shirt all the way. Now in consulting, PJ or suit

Snow.bros

I have seen some wear casual but I think it depends on the culture of the company you work for.

In my organization we wear golf shirts that are branded with the company logo product and our partners(suppliers), we also have shirts if you feel comfortable with it, we wear black, khaki, brown trousers but I wear chinos and black shinny shoes.

fredrikjj

My two cents are that what IT people need to work the most on is staying in better shape, not so much a specific dress code. If you care about making a good impression, not being over weight can be very important, like it or not. As an added bonus, if you are fit, clothes will look 10x better and following a specific dress code becomes less important (unless the the code is actually explicit, I guess).

zxbane

fredrikjj wrote: »

My two cents are that what IT people need to work the most on is staying in better shape, not so much a specific dress code. If you care about making a good impression, not being over weight can be very important, like it or not. As an added bonus, if you are fit, clothes will look 10x better and following a specific dress code becomes less important (unless the the code is actually explicit, I guess).

This is a very good point, I know personally when I see someone even in a very nice suit, if they look like they are about to explode out of it that takes away from the impression they give.

With that said I typically wear similar dress attire as others in the thread have said. Generally I don't wear a suit, more often I just wear khakis and polo's or button up shirts.

philz1982

zxbane wrote: »

This is a very good point, I know personally when I see someone even in a very nice suit, if they look like they are about to explode out of it that takes away from the impression they give.

With that said I typically wear similar dress attire as others in the thread have said. Generally I don't wear a suit, more often I just wear khakis and polo's or button up shirts.

It's not my fault the dry cleaners shrunk my suit....

As for the OP, what job do you have. Being an IT consultant for Accenture has a different dress code then being a geek squad member for Best Buy.

nachodba

The dress code at my company is Khakis or Slacks, polo or button up. At my last company it was nice jeans and a collared shirt. It will vary depending on company.

thatguy67

philz1982 wrote: »

It's not my fault the dry cleaners shrunk my suit....

As for the OP, what job do you have. Being an IT consultant for Accenture has a different dress code then being a geek squad member for Best Buy.

I am not in the field yet. I was wondering if I should start planning to update my wardrobe and from the looks of this topic, I probably will not.

zidian

Principal Systems Development Specialist (that's a mouthful) a.k.a. .Net Developer or Software Developer

I wear business casual to work M-T and Jeans/Sneakers on Fridays. If I have something important I'll wear a nice button up shirt. Otherwise I usually wear a polo.

FloOz

It all depends on your workplace. I have worked in places where a button down and khaki pants were the standard. At my current job its very casual. Jeans and a polo everyday.

gc8dc95

Minimum of Khaki/Button Shirt. Some dress a little more formal depending on their position.

networker050184

Anything goes currently. Usually jeans and a tshirt or sometimes a button down for me. Shorts and flip flops are common too. The most common dress code I've seen in my career is jeans and collared shirt though.

networker050184

Dieg0M wrote: »

It will depend of the enterprise you work for. I have a strict, no tie policy since reading this blog post: EtherealMind's Fashion Tips for Network Engineering Men - EtherealMind

Oh lord I hope you aren't actually taking this serious.... Belt clips make me shudder.

GoodBishop

thatguy67 wrote: »

Hello,

I am getting ready for a job in the IT field and want to start considering what to wear. I figured I would see what everyone's job titles are, and what they wear to work. Does your employer have a strict dress code? If you are free to wear whatever you want, what do you choose?

IT Manager, blue jeans, polo shirt, leather belt, dress shoes, black socks if they are clean, otherwise white socks.

N2IT

Button down, dress pants dress shoes all 5.

snapdad

I've always joked that a polo and khakis was the office uniform of IT professionals.

auxiliarypriest

My day to day is a Polo shirt with Company logo, slacks or chinos, and dress shoes. If I'm in a meeting with employees outside our organization, I have to wear the whole nine yard, suit and tie.

IT Support Analyst - local Government

darkerz

Sr Network Engineer @ Fortune 50,

Dark Jeans, Colorful Sneakers, Bright & Fitting T-Shirt and Sweatshirt/Slim Hoodie.

Clean Shave, Visible very nice watch, young, very fit & hair is gel + styled.

Mixture between fitness guy, hipster and engineer.

Pretty rad' man.

~

RHEL

My typical outfit is a polo, jeans, and tennis shoes. Rarely I'll get fancy and tuck the polo in or wear a button down.

goldenlight

I would wear nice slacks polo shirt, casual shoes.

--chris--

Dieg0M wrote: »

It will depend of the enterprise you work for. I have a strict, no tie policy since reading this blog post: EtherealMind's Fashion Tips for Network Engineering Men - EtherealMind

The socks section matched my logic the last time I bought socks. 20 pair please, all the same. Nothing worse than hunting for black socks in the sock drawer when its dark because you don't want to wake your SO.

The place I work at has two polices. One for the road guys (customer facing) and one for the office (non-customer facing). Road guys = slacks, collared shirts "neat and clean" as they said when I hired in. Office = jeans and t-shirts unless they have a client meeting then it defaults to road policy.

Also if we are working in a client site that warrants different attire (like the time I crawled around ceilings all day in a machine shop), then thats cool. Hawaiian shirt day? Join in.

CyberfiSecurity

I wore a jockstrap and a tie worked from home before. So, the answer is vary, it depends on the company environment and corporate culture. Mostly from Jeans and Khaki and Polo shirt.

TLeTourneau

As has been mentioned previously, it depends on the culture. I am an IT Systems Engineer at a large healthcare organization and it is suits/shirt and ties for us. On the plus side I always have wedding/funeral clothes.

Talonize

Whatever the boss people say goes, you wear. If the boss says you can wear t-shirts, go ahead and wear a t-shirt. Of course I think it's ok to go a level up. Go ahead and wear business casual if you have a casual environment. Just don't go full blown suit unless you sell to clients. I personally wanted to wear full blown dress shirts and slacks with fancy shoes. All I got was weird looks. So I just started wearing polos as a compromise.