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Comment by iknowSFR | Hacker News Reader

Wasn’t the same true of his original attire selection, though? If he wore jeans in the 2000s, he would have faced consequences. So he wore slacks. What’s really changed?

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As the parent comment said, he stood out for dressing nicely those years ago. Wearing jeans in the 2000s was not just tolerated or accepted, it was expected. I remember feeling wary of engineers who dressed up for interviews then, like they were trying too hard.

Ah, I interpreted as a reflection of general work cultures. My 2000s years were always formal.

My general belief for interviews is to dress one step up from what you'd be wearing on a day-to-day basis at that job.

I wear shorts and a t-shirt (often a DEFCON or BSidesPDX shirt) usually, so I'd wear jeans and a solid color t-shirt or possibly a polo to an interview, though I haven't done an in-person interview for a job since 2016. For remote interviews, I'm in sweatpants and a polo.

In the early 2000s, I wasn't a tech worker yet, but I always assumed engineers were wearing khakis and a polo, so I would have shown up to an interview with black slacks and a button-up shirt, maybe even a tie.

My impression is dress-culture was (and still is somewhat) different on the US East vs West coast. The tech company I worked for in the mid 2000s on the East coast explicitly forbid jeans in the dress code.

Very much my impression too. I work for an org with sites scattered across the country. My colleagues in Virginia still regularly wear suits, while I in California haven't even owned a suit in many years. For no particular reason I can discern, the gradient seems to be pretty linear. Our Texas people are right in the middle formality wise.

It entirely depends on the industry. Banks, government, defense, etc. will feel very stuffy even on the west coast, while web companies will have greasy unshaven slobs even in Manhattan.

I'm sure that's true, but the interesting thing to me is that it's the gradient exists within an industry too, at least for me in government R&D, we're not at all stuffy out here in the West.

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