Hacker News Reader

Comment by ben1040 | Hacker News Reader

If I’d known about the anti-suit culture, I would have worn Dockers and a polo shirt. I just wanted to convey that I took the interview seriously. Apparently the feeling wasn’t reciprocal.

This isn't the first time I've heard of candidates being looked down upon for wearing suits to interviews, and I'm really curious what the thought process is behind this.

I've done interviews where the candidate wore a suit, and where they wore jeans and a button-down, and nobody felt offended. The only time someone's clothing made a truly negative impression was when it was clear their suit had most likely been crumpled up in a ball 30 minutes before the interview -- some of his answers to technical questions suggested he was generally sloppy, and his appearance was just one more data point to support that conclusion.

Is there some inherent distrust in someone who shows up in a suit?

View on HN

The advice I've always heard is to wear the suit and adapt as the day goes on. If you are confronted with a room full of blinking shorts and sandals types then you gratefully pull off the tie, drop the coat, unbutton the collar, and roll up the sleeves while saying something about "glad you guys won't expect me to suit up".

I think it's mostly subconscious. I doubt anyone consciously thinks "That guy's wearing a suit. Don't hire him." However, people probably tend to take it as a sign that someone is dressing up to compensate for a lack of ability.

The article a few days ago about people not liking overly-enthusiastic, helpful team members comes to mind. It might be that some people just get an impression like "This guy thinks he's better than us", or the fear that the new guy will dress up, making them look bad if they continue to dress more casual.

My first interview for a technical job, I showed up in a suit and tie. The rest of the interview had each person start by asking some variant of "wait, are you sure you're interviewing for engineering and not marketing?" The feeling this conveyed was that if you wore a suit, you couldn't possibly be a real engineer.

I landed the job - a summer internship - but the suit was a distraction. It certainly did not help me relax and perform my best. The job rocked, so I'm glad the people there were able to look past the suit. Since then, I've taken to asking people what kind of dress code they expect on an interview.

I always get the feeling, when this happens, is that they're really trying to convey "hey look, we're really a pretty casual bunch..." not "man you're a tool for wearing a suit."

I would honestly interpret it as a positive. That casual atmosphere is pretty ingrained into the culture at that point.

Since then, I've taken to asking people what kind of dress code they expect on an interview.

Skulk around in the parking lot the day before and see what they wear. Then, dress one notch -- and only one -- above that standard.

The one time I tried asking, they actually did want me to wear a suit, and the way they phrased it seemed to imply that I was ignorant for having to ask in the first place. That was an odd experience.

you /look/ like a marketing guy. nerds don't trust marketing guys. If you show up in a suit to a tech. interview, my first thought is that you want to be management, not a tech; and you are just using this as a stepping stone. Now, if I /need/ management, that's great. But if I'm trying to hire a tech, it's a net negative.

on a related note, I think there is a certain amount of hostility towards good looking people in general in the field, for purely irrational and emotional reasons. (really, it's related to the irrational hostility towards ugly people in marketing and management.)

Don't read too much into it. I've never gone to an interview in anything other than a suit and, trust me, if my employer asked me to fill a management role, I'd decline the offer (and if told that I didn't have a choice to decline, I'd start looking for a different job). I also never ever wear a suit for work.

The reality is that this phenomenon of wearing casual attire for interviews is a significant, and very recent, departure from the prevailing norm for white collar jobs and many people, myself included, have the "always wear a suit to a job interview" social custom as deeply ingrained in our consciousnesses as other customs like table manners. If the tech community were to abandon table manners in favor of "cave man" style dining, would you then hold it against an interview candidate if they opted to use silverware while dining with you? Bottom line, if the candidate is wearing a suit to the interview, assume they are doing it for their own comfort. To behave otherwise is, for that person, taboo.

obviously, judging people by surface characteristics is stupid. to some extent, we can't help it... but I think that a good interviewer has learned to look past his or her biases. There are better ways to figure out if a technical person knows what they are doing than looking at their surface characteristics. (really, I think getting some idea of a candidates actual skill is easier to do in a technical interview than when, say, interviewing a manager type. Of course, this might just be a result of where my experience lies.)

I was just trying to explain why the surface characteristic of wearing a suit and generally looking good is sometimes seen as a negative in the computer industry, even though it is a positive characteristic elsewhere.

It really shows that you didn't prepare for the interview. If its casual or business casual and you should up in a suit, you look like an ass. Besides, who codes in a suit and tie all day?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com