A work friend recently told a story about her 17 year old son who had gone for an interview for a part-time job at a theme park, only to be turned away before he could even open his mouth, because he was wearing jeans. They were apparently smart black jeans. She had reassured him before the interview that they would be ok, and she related her story in tones of outrage. It was received by an uncomfortable silence, followed by a few non-committal murmurs - ‘oh dear, that’s a shame’ - and it was clear most people in the office were thinking that he wouldn’t have got an interview with them either.
Was he treated unfairly (surely black jeans qualify as virtually evening dress next to the parade of tattoos and piercings)? Or were he and his mother foolish not to make more of an effort (even a minimum wage job serving hot dogs has fierce competition these days)?
Me personally? Yes. I would have given him an interview. Considering where it was and the circumstances (theme park, part time, he’s 17, serving hot dogs) I think wanting business clothes for an interview is kind of silly. But that’s just me.
If he’d been very well dressed otherwise, with polished shoes and perfect hair, I’d have given him a chance. But I would never wear jeans to an interview.
Jeans and a questionable t-shirt? Well, maybe that sends a bad signal. Neat jeans and a decent shirt and shoes? Hey, it’s a part time job, and there’s no reason the interviewer should have been a hardass.
General rule of thumb is one dresses at or one level above the dress code for the job one is interviewing for. I’ve never seen a theme park attendant wearing jeans (I’ve been to Busch Gardens, Disney, two Six Flags, and a number of smaller parks), so he should have at least worn a nice pair of khakis and a polo or button-down shirt.
A coworker was recently telling me that her sister is some kind of a bigwig at a local hotel chain (think VP-level), and the coworker’s daughter was apparently a lock for a good-paying summer job until she showed up for the interview with gauges in her ears. In an employment world where it’s often more who you know than what you know, I think it’s quite telling that the niece of a VP couldn’t get a job (handing out towels and drinks poolside) due to dress code.
I’m not surprised they turned him away; I probably would have too.
It could be they just didn’t like the look of him in general and used the jeans as an excuse. In my opinion if he were otherwise nicely dressed I wouldn’t have a problem given this is a 17 YO kid. However if he had a whole look going I might reconsider as this is a public facing position and like it or not people want comfortable and familiar when they’re at a theme park with the kids.
It depends on the company, location, etc. In Spain and for the kind of jobs a 17yo will interview for, he was perfectly fine; the rule of thumb here is that if you’re interviewing with a “HR selection agent” you break out your “woolly sheep disguise” (which does include your best jeans as a possible choice, simply because many people don’t have any other kind of trousers… or their other trousers are shorts), and if you’re interviewing with the actual company you wear the “nice” version of the clothes you’d wear to work. Wearing a suit to meet a lab manager about a lab tech position is considered as big of a goof as wearing baggy jeans to a group interview for bank tellers.
I am a pretty easygoing person, so I could picture myself giving a kid in jeans a chance because if it’s his first experience at a job interview I can see how he might not know any better.
However, I’m not surprised that he was turned away and I would NEVER recommend going to a job interview of any kind in jeans. At the very least, wear some nice-looking slacks or khakis. I think most business people would think someone in jeans wasn’t taking the interview seriously.
Hopefully he at least learned a lesson from this and will be careful about how he dresses for future job interviews.
Wow, that’s amazing. A nice pair of black jeans is not good enough for an interview at a part-time theme park job these days (and, am I understanding right, as a hot dog vendor?) Wow. I’d be wary of the interviewee who came in wearing business clothes for this type of interview. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
There’s a whole lot of room between jeans and business clothes. Yes, it’s ridiculous to expect a kid looking for a job and a theme park or a retail store to wear a suit- the kid probably doesn’t own one and won’t need one for the job. It’s not so ridiculous to expect him to show up in a pair of khakis, which will likely be required by the dress code if he gets the job.
In hiring for a manufacturing job, we found jeans perfectly acceptable uniform attire and, in fact, one of the uniform options was to wear (provided) jeans.
There could have been a couple other circumstances, too. We don’t know if this was a cattle call interview - it wouldn’t be a surprise for a seasonal theme park to be doing mass interviews. As an interviewer I would automatically cut out those who didn’t dress totally appropriately, especially if that means weeding out 20 out of 100 applicants who are all there the same day.
Also the description of black jeans really leaves a lot to the imagination. Were they well-fitting, ink-black, and accompanied by a spiffy shirt and shoes? Were they a bit faded, baggy, accompanied by scuffed up gym shoes, looking like a sk8er boy trying to play dress up? Those are two very different looks, both with black jeans.
The correct answer is as stated above: belt, nice shoes, dress shirt, and dark jeans is fine. Obviously, none of that dick-mouth crap like “gauges” in the ears or face tatoos or anything fucked up in the hair or alterna-bitch piercings.
Sounds like the slob “ayup ahm ah doon tha high-rin today!” is a pissy little bitch and should die from being raped.