My first query on this website was whether those of you who held white-collar jobs that allowed jeans or had no dress code around the office were also allowed to dress that way when you had face-to-face client meetings. A few responders answered that, in fact, they were allowed to do so (or in one or two cases, that they deliberately did not dress up, in order to present a certain impression to the client), though quite a few responders indicated that they would dress up at least for a first meeting with a client or that they would vary their dress accoding to the kind of client they were meeting. Now I would like to ask a related question. How many of you have gone to a first job interview (again for a white-collar job, not for general labor, an industrial job or trade, etc.) wearing blue jeans or other utterly casual clothes? Did you get the job? Was there any reaction to your choice of attire or did it go over smoothly in all respects? Was there an ideological reason for your doing this or did you simply not want to bother dressing up or have no time to change out of your normal work clothes?
The standard advice for going to a job interview for a white-collar job is that it is an occasion for which it is appropriate to dress up. In the not-so-distant past it was advised to always wear formal business attire (suit, tie, etc.) and the standard advice was that it was better to overdress than to underdress. Nowadays, though, with many companies having no dress code or a generally casual corporate culture, the advice given varies more; some sources suggest that it is not appropriate to wear a suit to such a place as it may give the impression of going against the company culture. Still, it is commonly advised to dress a notch up from what you expect the standard dress would be, thus to wear khakis and a polo shirt to an interview for a job in a company where jeans and t-shirts are standardly worn, for example. Many sources will still say that blue jeans are not appropriate for a first interview, at least in a white-collar job, but I have found some opinions in recent sources on the internet to the effect that e.g. clean solid blue jeans are OK for an interview in a company where the standard dress is very casual, so perhaps things are changing.
I will share my own experiences with this issue. I am living proof that you can be hired for some kind of white-collar work somewhere wearing jeans. My practice throughout my adult life was, out of principle, to go dressed to interviews no differently than I normally dress. I have worn jeans in all but three interviews in my life; two of these were for summer office jobs while I was still a student and I dressed up for these at my mother’s behest. The third I will return to later. Once I left home, I went to teach English abroad. At first I made no attempt to dress up as 1) it was very important - almost a dealbreaker - for me to be able to work somewhere where i can wear jeans; 2) out of principle - I wanted to be hired for who I am and not for presenting some fake image of myself based on some kind of artificial etiquette. Furthermore, I wanted to lead by example and fight the discrimination against someone who would interview in jeans. If someone saw me in jeans and was willing to hire me, that would keep their standards lower for the next person they would hire. If, however, they saw me dressed up, that would increase the chance that they would be used to people dressing up and would consider the next person to come to be interviewed by them in jeans eccentric. This was not an obstacle to my being hired. In fact, in those days (2003), it was beyond casual with me: I actually looked, in retrospective, quite sloppy (I actually went to some interviews in sandals and socks; today I would never do that. In fact, I stopped wearing sandals to work years ago and recently stopped wearing them altogether). Later, I would make a little more effort to at least look put together, but was still completely casual in my dress. Various language schools did hire me. C. 2006, I briefly held a part-time HR position at one of these schools and when I interviewed prospective teachers, I would always tell them over the phone that I didn’t care if they dressed up or not. In 2010, I returned to Canada and after looking for a job for several months was hired wearing jeans, a clean t-shirt or sweatshirt, and leather shoes for an SEO job for which there was no dress code. However, the work in that company was exploitative and I ended up going abroad again and getting work with language schools. While I always wore jeans to the interviews, this time around there were no sandals and I think I had already adopted the custom of wearing a polo shirt - I.E. of presenting my best self, but my real best self, and not some fake version meant only to “dress to impress” and that would not reflect how I would actually dress for work. As I explained in the other thread, I also started a small side business, and when I had a meeting with a potential corporate client (IIRC this happened only once), I.E. the managing director of another language school for which I did not work, I wore jeans again out of principle. I did not get the contract, but the director seemed to take me seriously and he did not end the dealings with me with that first meeting. Thus I hope my lack of business attire was not the decisive factor in their decision not to use my services. I actually returned to Canada one more time and easily got a tutorial job, again wearing jeans and a polo shirt.
This year, however, I decided to go abroad again and this time for good (in short, things have moved on in Canada to such an extent that almost nothing of what I had twice returned there for remains for me there; it just wasn’t worth staying). I applied to various language schools already from Canada; I ended up agreeing on cooperation with four of them, two of which I had already worked for and two of which were new for me. For three of them, I had to have a face-to-face interview upon arrival before they finalized their cooperation with me. As always, I wore jeans and a polo shirt. But for one of them - incidentally the same one that I had tried to get as a corporate client when I had the business, I got very lucky. The hiring manager, a wonderful person whom I hold in high esteem, did a Skype interview with me and immediately sent me an offer of cooperation based on my experience. She also sent me a handbook that all teachers get; in it I discovered a section about something which was not much of a thing in the other schools I had cooperated with: a dress code. In brief, they wanted their teachers to present a professional appearance when they went to teach in companies. At first it said that you are fine if you are as well dressed as the student sitting across from you, suggesting the dress code was on a sliding scale. However, it ended with a definition of “business casual”, which specifically stated “no jeans”. At a younger age, I might have flaunted the dress code and hoped no one would catch me doing so, but at this point, I thought it would be better to respect it. I figured OK, I will be cooperating with several schools and maybe it won’t be necessary to dress better than usual every day. I went out and bought some khakis and unlike the other three interviews, I wore them to the demo lesson that I gave the hiring manager (a mere formality; I was presumed hired at this point). At this effective second interview, she asked if I had any questions. One thing I thought to ask was if what I was wearing - khakis and a polo shirt - were sufficient for their dress code or if I should get anything better. And it’s a good thing I asked. She smiled and said that it was completely sufficient, that I was dressed better than half their teachers dressed, and that nobody actually monitored adherence to the dress code. She indicated that it was more of a guideline that it was good to have and advised dressing better for a first lesson and then dressing to the level of the students’ dress; thus by implication, there is nothing wrong with being in jeans if the student is also wearing them. (Meanwhile this is quite a conitinentally elegant young woman - always has on a nice blouse or other good top; very neutral nail polish and just a touch of well-applied makeup). This is good to know as I ended up having the most lessons with this particular school (and I feel very lucky to have gotten the opportunity to work there; on various points it is definitely a step above some of the other places where I’ve worked). In the end, most of my in-company students do wear jeans on at least some days, and in practice I wear (good dark) jeans on most days. I do put on the khakis once or twice a week when going to certain companies, also so I can get some use of them since I bought them already, and the hiring manager and the aforesaid managing director have seen me in both jeans and khakis around the office. Since this school, and to a lesser extent another of the ones that I work with, do encourage something like a professional appearance, I have worn a shirt with a collar, though, at all my lessons since I came back.
Though I now own and intermittently wear khakis, I intend to continue my practice of wearing jeans if I ever go to another job interview (again, I would make an exception and wear something better in the event that I was interviewing for a job where I thought jeans could go against the eventual dress code; e.g. if I had an internal interview for some higher position at the aforesaid highly esteemed language school for which I acquired the khakis in the first place). This would again be out of principle: if I am to work somewhere where jeans are allowed, I would want the employer to again have the statistic of seeing someone come to the interview in jeans and be used to that, which would hopefully contribute to their not being prejudiced in this regard when interviewing other candidates.
BTW, around 10 years ago, I saw a man come for an interview in a bank wearing jeans, during one of my in-company English lessons. One of my students received him (and may have also interviewed him). He did have a suit jacket or good sport coat on, though; I don’t know, perhaps this dress combination is a European thing. I don’t know how he would have fared with such attire in a North American bank or if there would have been any difference to the practice in Europe, but I did see the same man come back later for a second interview, so it seems the jeans didn’t hurt his prospects. However, this time he was wearing a full suit or something so he had likely become aware of their dress code at some point.
