Does anybody dress up for interviews anymore?

[Bill Bukovec]

Does anybody dress up for interviews anymore?

We had some candidates come into our company for interviews. The job is for a maintenance technician, requiring a two year associate degree.

Two of he candidates had dockers and a button down shirt.

One had a T-shirt, blue jeans ans sneakers.

I know you can't judge a book by it's cover, all I expect is a little effort.

I always wear a dress shirt, slacks tie and sport coat to interviews..

A T-shirt and jeans are OK for when you are working, sometimes things get a little dirty.

Just wondering if I'm way off base.

By the way, I recommended hiring the jeans and sneaker guy.

Bill

[Bill McNiel]

I believe the Rule of Thumb has always been "Dress for the job you want". Does a Maintaince Tech wear a sportscoat and tie?

[Pat Barry]

I would be floored if a maintenance tech came to work wearing a shirt and tie / sport coat / jacket with nicely polished shoes and khaki slacks

[Dave Anderson NH]

I would suggest that whether or not someone should dress up would be based on what kind of job they are looking to get. For sales, marketing, office work, accounting, and the professions, the first interview should definitely be coat and tie at least. Someone looking for the job you describe should only need to be neat, clean, and dressed in what is now commonly called business casual. Admittedly, I would look askance as someone showing up in jeans, shorts, a tee shirt (a polo shirt would be all right though), and without proper grooming. For a woman, excessive makeup, clothing too tight, excessive cleavage showing, and bare midriffs would also be major negatives. After aceing the interview and being hired everything depends on company policy and culture. The business world has become a lot less formal since we were young.

[paul cottingham]

Back when I was still working, and we had our network consulting company, we had to hire a new employee. The fellow we hired showed up for the interview in dirty work clothes cause he had come straight from a temp job removing fibreglass from an old boat. And after the interview was off to another physical, dirty job. Hired him on the spot.
Four reasons. 1) He was clearly hardworking, with a strong work ethic. 2) even though he was a trained network engineer (and a very skilled one, as it turned out) working at a "menial" job to pay his bills was clearly not beneath him. A shocking number of people sit on their asses and expect jobs to find them. 3) he was obviously good with his hands, something we found to be a huge, and often untrainable, asset. This was around when I started to lose the feeling in my right hand and some of my coordination, so having another person to do that kind of work was important. 4) he was really keen to learn, another thing one can't train into people. During the interview we got into a discussion about routing and setting up temporary routers made with old computers, and he was excited and enthusiastic to learn new stuff, and asked great questions.

My partner and I were both technical trainers in network design and installation, as well as windows and Unix. So we knew we could train to fill knowledge gaps. You can't teach work ethic. So, frankly, even though the job required dressing neatly, for the interview, we happily overlooked it.

[Wade Lippman]

I believe the Rule of Thumb has always been "Dress for the job you want". Does a Maintaince Tech wear a sportscoat and tie?

Gotta agree with this. He wants to show he is a good worker, not that he has nice clothes.

[Wes Mitchell]

I would expect people to dress a notch above what they would wear on a normal work day. If you're interviewing for a jeans and t-shirt job, wear khakis and a polo/button up shirt. If you are interviewing for a business casual job, wear slacks and a tie or add a sport coat. If you're interviewing for a job where you'd regularly wear a tie/sport coat, wear a suit for the interview. Note: that's probably where it ends, if you're interviewing for a suit and tie job, I wouldn't expect a Tuxedo for the interview . I don't think jeans and a t-shirt should ever be acceptable interiew wear.

[Jim Koepke]

Haven't worn a "coat and tie" since my last job interview.

Now that I am retired I do not expect to wear one again.

If someone was qualified for a job, the lack of fancy dress could be overlooked.

jtk

[ryan paulsen]

I would expect people to dress a notch above what they would wear on a normal work day. If you're interviewing for a jeans and t-shirt job, wear khakis and a polo/button up shirt. If you are interviewing for a business casual job, wear slacks and a tie or add a sport coat. If you're interviewing for a job where you'd regularly wear a tie/sport coat, wear a suit for the interview. Note: that's probably where it ends, if you're interviewing for a suit and tie job, I wouldn't expect a Tuxedo for the interview . I don't think jeans and a t-shirt should ever be acceptable interiew wear.

This was always the recommendation I received when I was interviewing. I also get the feeling that if you dress up too much (ie shirt and tie for a jeans/t shirt job) it looks like you're trying too hard, or unsure of what the job requirements are.

It would be nice to believe that most people can see past your clothes, but unfortunately this is what makes up a good chunk of the first impression.

[Brian Elfert]

I interviewed for a number of jobs the last time I was in the job market some 15 years ago. I wore a suit to all of them except the interview for my current job. The hiring manager when he called me about the interview specifically told me not to wear a suit to the interview. I went out and bought a new dress shirt and dress pants just for the interview.

[Frank Drew]

Applying for professional firefighter jobs often requires suits and ties for interviews, as does classroom time in some police academies. Curious, but there it is. Sometimes what seem like arbitrary, not really necessary requirements are to see who will make the effort to get with the program.

[glenn bradley]

Depends if the maintenance technician is maintaining water heaters or computer storage arrays. Jeans and a t-shirt state that the interview was given no thought and the candidate just sort of dropped by. A shirt and tie are not appropriate for every position but, something other than sneakers is not out of the question . JMHO.

[Dan Hintz]

I would expect people to dress a notch above what they would wear on a normal work day. If you're interviewing for a jeans and t-shirt job, wear khakis and a polo/button up shirt. If you are interviewing for a business casual job, wear slacks and a tie or add a sport coat. If you're interviewing for a job where you'd regularly wear a tie/sport coat, wear a suit for the interview. Note: that's probably where it ends, if you're interviewing for a suit and tie job, I wouldn't expect a Tuxedo for the interview . I don't think jeans and a t-shirt should ever be acceptable interiew wear.

I think my view aligns with Wes's... though I would certainly give a pass without question to the guy Paul interviewed. I often go to interviews in my work clothes (jeans, sneakers, and polo), mainly because I'm going to them directly after work and it would look odd if I showed up to work in a suit and tie. If the interview did not interrupt my daily schedule, it would still be suit and tie, but that's rare these days.

[paul cottingham]

Yeah, the other thing that helped out the candidate was that he brought up the router. After we introduced ourselves, and talked a bit, he said "what's that?" And pointed at the network we had diagrammed with the routing tables on a napkin. And we got talking, and as comes naturally, started teaching. His enthusiasm, and clear aptitude won the day for him.

[Ole Anderson]

One of the owners of our consulting engineering company was a real down to earth guy and came to work one day dressed very casual with a flannel shirt, although he often wore a suit. A stranger saw him walking the halls and asked if he was the custodian.

I would say dress one notch up from the job you want unless that job normally requires a suit, don't bother wearing a tux for an interview.