I recently interview for a technical Program Manager position and I never wore a jacket or tie. I typically wear for an interview what I expect to wear on the job, possibly a slightly more format shirt. When conducting interviews I’d at least take note if someone drastically overdressed for the role and would ask what they expected from the position.
I’ve never had anyone come in very overdressed. I have had a few men who wore complete suits with ties. Somewhat unusual, but I did not knock them down for that. One applicant wore a suit and tie, and all through the interview he slouched terribly. I certainly knocked him down for his body language; it speaks to his communication skills. That was over 20 years ago and I can still picture him. I’m sure I still have his resumé in my files with my comments about that.
Would I ever knock someone down for being overdressed? Yes, if they were extremely overdressed (e.g., if she wore a formal gown, or if he wore a black tie tuxedo). I’d knock them down for their ability to fit in with the existing group and company. But that’s an extreme hypothetical.
I haven’t gone on a job interview in years but remember feeling weird to be the best-dressed person in the building.
And when a co-worker would come to work dressed up, we would joke about them going on a job interview after work. Sometimes that was the case and sometimes not.
I used to wear a tie to the office, mainly because it made me feel like I was at work (and the ritual of taking off the tie at the end of the day marked the boundary for ‘off duty’, at least in theory.)
But I was the only one wearing a tie. In meetings with external parties such as suppliers, they often seemed to just assume I was the one in charge. The mild, never-mentioned confusion was rather fun.
I last interviewed for a job about 30 years ago, but even then interviewers didn’t expect tech people to wear a tie or jacket. I always told them that I would be coming from work so I would be dressed for work, which meant jeans and an untucked button-down shirt.
I tell everyone who comes to interview with us that they should dress casually but most don’t. I can understand that the college students don’t have much choice because the placement office and their parents probably insist that they wear business attire. But when a veteran programmer comes in wearing a tie it’s a negative for me. If you want me to believe that you’re a programmer, you should look like one. If you wear a suit you look like a manager. Most managers don’t know shit about programming.
Yeah, I would probably where a nice sweater.
In reality, our IT department is VERY casual. I’ve gone to meetings in shorts. Luckily I don’t ‘go’ to meetings anymore. I’m 100% work from home.
Have you considered asking your contact at the employer what you should wear? They’ll probably tell you, it at least give you a ballpark idea.
In general, you should dress at the top of normal for the position you are interviewing for. But what’s normal varies a lot by industry, and also by company. My employer was business attire long after it became uncommon, for instance. (It became a problem for our external-facing employees, especially on the West Coast. They stopped wearing business suits because they couldn’t constructively interact with clients when they wore suits. But they all had to own a good suit to wear when senior management visited. We expected people showing up for interviews to wear a suit.)
Honestly, if I’m wearing a suit and tie for an interview, I feel like an overdressed asshole. And I’m typically interviewing at Wall Street banks and tech companies. And I actually like wearing a suit and tie.
Actually what I’ve found is wearing the suit with no tie is usually sufficient these days. You’re not overdressed but your still a step above the hoodies and puffy North Face vests most people wear to the office these days.
Seconded.
I think it would be a bit unfair to mark someone down for overdressing. It’s an interview; we’ve all been there, you don’t know the office culture and you play it safe by going formal.
That said, if it’s an engineering role at a tech startup then it might subliminally give an impression of being a bit old-fashioned. It might make a tiny difference for a candidate that was borderline on the technical questions.
Personally, I’ve had interviews for tech startups, and I still went with e.g. a shirt and V-neck because I think it’s still safer overall to wear a collar.