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Comment by cstross | Hacker News Reader

You could always ask?

"Hi. I understand you're a start-up. I'd wear a suit to a job interview with a big, conservative corporation, but I don't want to make you uncomfortable if that's not how you roll. Is office casual acceptable?"

This puts the ball in their court, and also tells them you're flexible and you prepare for interviews in advance rather than running on autopilot.

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Uh, no. The one who's uncomfortable here is clearly you, if you have to ask. If you really don't know and it's important to you to 'blend in', then swing by the office in the morning or at night and see how people are dressed coming in or out. Or find the founders on LinkedIn or Facebook and see what they're wearing. Be a little bit less obvious about it.

If I got a note from a prospective candidate like this one, it would probably be a point against them because it broadcasts insecurity and helplessness neither of which is an attractive trait in a prospective employee. This is the part where resourcefulness and self-motivated behavior starts.

Maybe that's the case if you want to turn everything into a mind game. You're really taking points away from the company, not the candidate, when you judge them idiotically.

Wait, you suggest that they "swing by the office" instead of just sending an email? This is madness.

Exactly. That's why I'm saying just be yourself. It's the candidate asking the question who starts the mindgame. So long external validation matters more than inner confidence, I'll always look like a mindgame you can't win. And dropping by the office can seem like madness if you're going down the line of outside validation thinking too far. At the other end of the spectrum, it's recon.

Agreed. They're a 15-person team, contacting them beforehand is not out of the question (I did so when I first started interviewing at startups).

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