i work for a company that is about as far from a startup as you can get. If an interviewer at a job fair is not just collecting resumes, he or she is not going to think you can program better if you have a tie on.
Lawyers and bankers and customer facing finance guys wear suits. But you are not going to see many in restaurants or even at the theater. Things have gotten a ton more casual. 25 years ago people got dressed up to give talks at a conference, today a small minority does and none of the experts. When I was General Chair 10 years ago I wore a suit for the plenary, but now we don’t even do that.
Even IBM people don’t wear white shirts any more.
I guess I’m the lone person saying that I expect a suit/tie but it’s not a big negative, so I’ll qualify:
As long as you’re wearing something nice, it doesn’t have to be exactly a suit and tie to impress me. Stained sweaters, jeans, shorts and/or sandals are all right out. If I’m the recruiter, a nice, clean, pressed pair of khakis with a button-down shirt will probably be just fine even without the jacket and tie.
On the other hand, I know that not everyone is like me and I know that a career fair is rarely about targeting just one employer. You’re better off over dressing than under, and you want to pick the outfit that will be the most acceptable.
And we haven’t talked much about women’s styles, but here’s my take: I don’t want to see cleavage or thighs. I don’t care how nice her outfit is, showing too much skin does not make me think she’s a person who relies on intelligence or skill to get things done. I might date her, but I’m not going to hire her.
Silicon Valley, software. It’s what people typically wear to work, and I see no reason why someone should dress up significantly beyond normal work attire. Obviously the clothes should be clean and such, but that’s just basic hygiene.
The whole “respect” thing is incomprehensible to me. But then, I interview people in more or less peer positions (I’m a senior engineer but I’m still just an engineer). Respect is earned by competence. Other signaling pathways are effectively a kind of lie and are neutral or negative as far as I’m concerned.
Showing up in jeans and a tee-shirt for a game industry job interview is about as wrong as showing up a full suit. It’s kind of clueless, and it’ not the best way to make a good first impression. But also not something that would automatically lead to the interview being cancelled.
A lot depends on what’s printed on the tee shirt. (I’m not kidding.)
I didn’t respond to the poll since there are interview/career fair situations that match each of the poll options. There isn’t a catch-all answer. Just to throw my specific case study into the thread: anyone interviewing with me wearing a suit would start off with a slightly negative first impression. It would suggest a lack of understanding of the field and its culture.
Yeah, hopefully it goes without saying that the shirt shouldn’t have anything offensive or tacky on it (or advertising for a competitor :)).
Khakis and a button down would probably be fine.
Sandals just screams “I’m headed to the lake afterward” not “I’m serious about this job”.
This post is just bizarre to me. We’re a small company - we go to career fairs because that’s where interns go to get hired. Where else would we go? The recruiters are wearing polos because that’s what has company branding on them - very rarely do you see a company with branded suits. And 1 step up from your interviewer, if your interviewer is in a polo, IS a suit and tie. The whole thing makes me go 
Yeah, I’ve seen guys who can pull off that look. I’m not sure I’m one of them, though.
And obviously there are always exceptions and corner cases. Last year, I had an interview with the principal of my old high school (not a job interview, more just general networking), and decided to wear my varsity jacket instead of a suit coat. It turned out to be the right decision: The principle was wearing a school-logo sweatshirt. If you’ve already got a connection of some sort to the place you’re interviewing at, it doesn’t hurt to show that (so long as you can do so in good taste, of course).
Or at least dress pants, a dress shirt and a tie.
College students don’t always have suits - and when I was hiring interns I didn’t expect a suit - but I did expect dress pants and a dress shirt and tie (or the female equivalent - which may be a skirt or dress pants with a blouse - its Minnesota, we don’t expect skirts to interviews in January).
Finance - I’d expect a suit at the job fair. Engineering - dress pants, dress shirt and tie.
Oh, cover up the tatts. Its the professional thing to do. When you get hired, chances are it will be no big deal to have it peek out from shirtsleeves. In an interview or at a job fair, it isn’t the time to be an iconoclast.
The poll doesn’t have enough options.
I would not expect a Ph.D. in my field to dress in a shirt and tie unless they were really green.
I was intentionally trying to limit the options. No 7 point pareto scale for me!
The “other pathways” may be easily manipulated, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that they’re a lie. If wearing a suit is a culturally accepted sign of “I respect you” or “I want to earn your respect” then it’s a form of communication that is just as valid as the spoken word. No communication is immune from deceit, but we generally take any attempt to communicate as conveying valid information.
I’ve seen people go to job fairs not only wearing shorts and flip flops, but with kids in two.
Sure, it depends on the cultural norms. I still shake their hand, because that’s just (again, in this culture) a sign of mutual human respect. In situations where hierarchy and authority are revered, suits make sense. When competence is the highest value, it looks like so much peacock frilling.
Also, I didn’t mean to imply that non-verbal communication was somehow inferior–on the contrary, it is extremely useful and often harder to fake than verbal. It’s the specific type of signaling that clothes represent that can itself serve as a warning (within my industry).
I’ve never showed up to an interview or career fair without a suit, but then it’s expected in my career field.
That said, outside of specific jobs in the trades or software-related companies that are known to culture a relaxed dress code, I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to wear a suit to an interview. A properly-fitted and tailored suit can make huge difference in a person’s appearance and how they are perceived (which in the end is what a job interview is all about).
Er, that should have been kids in tow.
I wouldn’t wear a suit and/or tie to a career fair here - I’d wear whatever I was normally wearing at uni that day anyway (I always make sure I’m clean and presentable anyway, and that was true even when I was at uni.)
Wearing a suit and tie to a career fair would be a waste of time since A) the people at the fair won’t have any idea who you are when your CV joins the hundreds of others in their inbox over the following days and B) They’re not the ones doing the hiring anyway, at least in my experience. Also C), You’d look like a try-hard and that’s not a good look no matter where you are or what you’re doing.
An actual interview though? Yes, I’d definitely wear a suit* but probably not a tie because that’s generally overdoing in in Queensland, but it would depend on the position I was applying for.
*Unless I was going for a position at a funky creative ad/PR agency type place, in which case it’d be jeans and a collared shirt or an ironic/geek T-shirt - part of my research into the company would be to find out a bit about its culture to gauge the appropriate clothing.
I wrote no suit or tie, and that wearing one would be detrimental. But then, I’m in Israel.
I think standards can be more relaxed for a campus career fair. Casual Friday kind of thing.
I would rather wear a suit than be castrated.